Union Minister of Finance and Corporate Affairs, Nirmala Sitharaman
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said institutions like the United Nations, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund need urgent reforms as they no longer speak for countries whose issues have gone unheard for decades. He said at the Harvard Kennedy School here on Tuesday that all these organizations have to look to reform themselves.
During an interaction with professor at Harvard University Lawrence Summers at the talk organized by the Mosawar-Rahmani Center for Business and Government, Sitharaman said, “While countries are in various stages of reform, these global institutions remain as they are. last several decades
Many of them no longer speak for countries whose issues have not been together for decades, be it on trade, security, monetary framework and development financing, she said. “There is a dire need for all these institutions to be more transparent, to represent and speak up for countries that do not get adequate representation; and so I think this is something that should happen immediately.”
When these institutions become more representative, he said, there will be more equitable distribution of resources, more concern for equitable development for development. All this dialogue that it used to be—north-south—is moving towards irrelevance.
“But the north-south issues still remain. Development has not reached many parts of Africa, many of the smaller Pacific islands. Many parts of those countries, even within countries where There is differentiated development. So I think this is what would have happened if only this reform agenda was taken up by these institutions,” she said.
Sitharaman arrived in the US on Monday for a week-long visit to attend the annual meeting of the World Bank and IMF as well as the G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors (FMCBG) meeting in Washington. During her official visit to the US, Sitharaman is expected to meet US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen.
He said that it is important for India to participate in the G20 right now. India joins the trio, which refers to the chairman of the G-20, and a chair before and after the current president.
India will chair the G20 from December 1, 2022 and Sitharaman said that throughout the year, “India will work to take the G20 agenda forward.” He said the G20 meeting would also be a learning process for him as to how the current president is pushing the agenda.
“More importantly, the OECD is working on these huge large multinationals in the much talked-about global tax or tax so that the practice that is prevalent now is that they are not paying taxes anywhere. where they are doing business and earning profit, nor are they paying taxes in the country where they are located,” she said, adding that the current ‘each country for its own’ taxation regime has allowed them to Given the opportunity to pay anywhere, which is a good company, but absolutely no use for the countries where the business is originating.
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