BRICS should set up credit agency to take on biased agendas of
existing agencies: Pillai
ANI, July 18, 2012
Like the efforts to set up a BRICS Development Bank, Brazil, Russia,
India, China and South Africa should also establish an international
credit rating agency to offset the biased agendas of some of the
rating agencies, said former Union Commerce and Home Secretary G.K.
Pillai on Tuesday.
Pillai, now a Distinguished Fellow and the RK Mishra Chair at
Observer Research Foundation, said this was necessary to control
what he called the "skewed information inflows" in the world.
Chairing a seminar on "BRICS Trade, Investment and Finance
Corporation", organised by Observer Research Foundation and CUTS
International, Pillai said "the control of intelligence and
information is so biased in many ways. We have international credit
rating agencies like Moodys and Standard and Poor so on that come
out with reports that have immediate impact on countries".
"I really don't see why we are do not get together to set up our own
rating agencies which could independently assess, because the timing
of the report itself lends suspicions that there is an agenda behind
the timing of the report," Pillai said pointing out India's
experiences in setting up various institutions like banks and stock
exchanges.
"With Head of States achieving a good rapport in the past few
years", Pillai hoped that BRICS are now capable of establishing
institutions to check the "skewed information inflows, skewed trade
flows and the skewed nature of the financing systems in the world
today".
Articulating a "Long Term Vision for BRICS", Dinesh Bhatia, Joint
Secretary in the Ministry of External Affairs, pointed out the BRICS
pledge of fund to the EU to help come out of the eurozone crisis and
said BRICS was emerging as a factor of stability and growth. He said
in the foreseeable future, the role of BRICS countries in shaping
global economy and global governance is only going to increase.
Zhotan Khuma of the Ministry of Commerce explained the ministry's
work in identifying areas of cooperation that would be mutually
beneficial to the BRICS economies. "SME's are one particular area of
cooperation that we have identified to be crucial" he said.
Dr. Usha Titus, Director, Ministry of Finance, addressed the
technical challenges of the proposed BRICS Development Bank.
Focusing on infrastructure, she pointed out the inability of the
existing MDBs to fully respond to the needs of emerging economies.
She presented some of the key challenges and issues to be tackled by
the working group for the Development Bank.
Bandi Ram Prasad, representing Financial Technologies Knowledge
Management Co. Ltd, highlighted the individual strengths of each
BRICS economy in driving regional growth and enhancing market
integration
Sunjoy Joshi, Director, ORF, highlighted "the significance of the
evolving BRICS partnership," emphasizing the need to deliberate on
the key building blocks of intra-BRICS trade.
Pradeep Mehta, the Secretary General of CUTS International, spoke of
the need for a "new architecture for global governance" and
reiterated the importance of BRICS in enhancing south-south
cooperation..
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