Protectionism will hurt global economy, people welfare:Jaitley

Increasing trade protectionism will hurt the global economy and welfare of people, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has warned.
"Questions are raised today in certain quarters about the global compact, which we have developed over the years- multilateralism driving the rule-based flow of goods and services- to deliver growth, development and poverty reduction for all and achievement of global public good.
The attempt to change the discourse from opening up and focusing on competitive advantage to increased protectionism will only hurt the global economy and welfare of people, Jaitley said in his address to the World Bank Development Committee.
"We need to bond together and renew our compact to protect the World from falling into spiral of slow economic growth, rising inequality and irreversibly altered climate, conflict and fragility," said the Finance Minister.

"I would thus like to call upon this august gathering today to reaffirm our full commitment to the mandate of the Development Committee and to deliver Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and our own twin goals.
Noting that there is no doubt that the developing world needs large and growing resources for achieving SDGs and the twin goals of our institutions, he said this necessity is the underlying argument of the billions to trillions discourse.

"All the developing countries also know that mobilisation of larger domestic resources and creating conditions for better flow of investment finance from both domestic and international private sector would be necessary for achieving their development ambitions," he said.

At the same time, it would be necessary for the multilateral system, especially the World Bank Group, to be stronger than ever to play a meaningful and decisive role in translating this development agenda into reality, he asserted.
In his address, the Finance Minister said that the World Bank should provide leadership in setting global standards in terms of financing, process efficiency, benchmarking, operations, monitoring and evaluation.
"We also sincerely hope that the implementation of the new safeguards and procurement policies is indeed characterised by adoption of country systems, a shorter processing time for all clients and hands on implementation support in Fragile and low capacity countries," he said.

Observing that enormity of the development challenges, its financing and the required knowledge support are continuously changing, Jaitley said this calls for development approach which is constantly evolving and is based on real partnership.
"The sustainability of developmental reforms relating to infrastructure, energy, human capital, resource mobilisation and knowledge development can be ensured in partnership mode on a long-term basis," Jaitley said.