WB should continue giving assistance to India: Chidambaram

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WASHINGTON, Oct 24 (PTI): Finance Minister P. Chidambaram has said the World Bank should not reduce its financial assistance to India even though the country has been recording impressive growth figures.
"Yes you see 9 percent growth but then you zoom in and look at parts of India that are growing at 4 percent and 5 per cent or even less. They are very poor and need to be helped and that help should be given by the World Bank," he told PTI here.
Chidambaram, who was here to attend the annual meeting of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund termed as "completely misguided" the view in some quarters that the Bank must reduce its portfolio with countries like India and China given their strong economic growth and availability of foreign exchange reserves.
"It is completely misguided and mis-directed. Please remember that while India is growing at 9 per cent and China may be growing at 10 per cent, there is a large number of people in India who are not growing at 9 per cent.
"India and China continue to house 750 million of the world's poor, world's very poor I may say," Chidambaram said.
He said the millennium development goals will not be attained unless India and China are supported. "2015 will come and go. If you ignore India and China the MDGs will not be achieved."
"I think the World Bank should and will continue to keep India in its focus and India will be among the biggest borrowers of World Bank Funds," the Finance Minister said, adding that none of the delegates attending the meetings raised the issue.
Last Week, Bank's president Robert Zoellick said the institution would continue to give financial support to the country.
"For India in particular, you still have a very large number of poor people. About 600 million in rural areas. So the one reason I am going to India is that I want to hear the Indian plans and how we can support them," he had told reporters.
Chidambaram also said that one of the important messages that is coming out the meetings of the IMF and the World Bank is that the voice of major emerging economies cannot be brushed aside and that the advanced economies must "pay heed".
"In the IMFC (International Monetary and Finance Committee) itself the issues that were highlighted were that the IMFC must become more representative, the Chair must go to another region in the next round, the term of the Chair must be limited to three years and the voice and quota issue must be addressed urgently," the finance minister said.
The message has gone that these issues could no longer be brushed aside or ignored and the voice of the emerging economies is loud and clear, he said. "The advanced economies must pay heed."