The Hindu : Front Page : China, India must jointly work to beat downturn: Zhang

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Mar 26, 2009
ePaper | Mobile/PDA Version

Front Page

Front Page

China, India must jointly work to beat downturn: Zhang

Sandeep Dikshit

—Photo: Shiv Kumar Pushpakar

Chinese ambassador to India Zhang Yan.

NEW DELHI: Though no meeting has been finalised so far between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and the Chinese President Hu Jintao at the coming G-20 summit in London on April 2, China indicated its desire to work with India in mitigating the impact of the financial crisis.

“Your [India] Prime Minster has just recovered from a serious illness and we have not received official confirmation whether he will be at the London summit. We can start the process of setting up a meeting on the sidelines of the summit once we officially get to know he will be there,” the Chinese Ambassador to India Zhang Yan told journalists here on Wednesday.

Both countries had extensively consulted each other as also Russia and Brazil in the run-up to the first G-20 summit on the financial crisis held in Washington last year.

Stimulus package

Pointing out that both countries had unveiled stimulus packages to beat the downturn in the global economy, Mr. Zhang felt they could share their experiences to provide relief to their people. China and India can complement each other in the international arena to guard against protectionism in developed countries.

It is also necessary to join hands to protect their interests, have more say and more rights at international lending institutions such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, he added.

Admitting that the financial crisis had created a big problem in China, Mr. Zhang drew comfort from the fact that the Chinese financial sector was not as severely affected as India’s because it was not closely related to the western financial system. But the real economy had been severely affected, especially industries related to exports located in the coastal areas. Joint ventures and foreign operations have closed down or stopped production leading to a large number of workers being laid off. At least 20 million workers (two crore) need to find new jobs as a result of closure of factories along the eastern coast, Mr. Zhang said.

As domestic consumption was low, Beijing was attempting to increase it through the dollars $700 billion (four trillion Chinese yen) stimulus package.

Infrastructure

The money would be used for infrastructure, improvement of rural conditions especially in the agriculture sector, health care and education.

China was also taking a series of measures to encourage consumption in rural areas by providing subsidies to buy television sets, washing machines and other consumer goods.

“These measures have had a very visible effect and factories producing these goods are doing quite well. We are quite confident we will maintain a stable and healthy economic rate of growth,” observed the ambassador.

Corrections and Clarifications

The seventh paragraph of a report "China, India must jointly work to beat downturn: Zhang" (March 26, 2009) was "As domestic consumption was low, Beijing was attempting to increase it through the $700 billion (four trillion Chinese yen) stimulus package." Four trillion Chinese yen is equivalent to $586 billion.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Front Page

News Update

Stories in this Section