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Exim Bank Commencement Day Annual Lecture 2010 on "Reconstructing Economic Governance: An Agenda for Sustainable Growth and Development
Dr. Supachai Panitchpakdi, Secretary-General, United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), while delivering the Twenty-Fifth Exim Bank Commencement Day Annual Lecture, has reflected upon the need for global economic governance reform for achieving sustainable growth and development. On the occasion, while welcoming the Guest Speaker, Mrs. Ravneet Kaur, Chairperson and Managing Director of Exim Bank, highlighted that Exim Bank's Annual Lecture series, instituted in 1986 to mark the Bank's Commencement Day, has earned recognition as an important milestone in contributing to the debate and discussions on contemporary trade and development issues impacting global economy. Dr. Subir Gokarn, Deputy Governor, Reserve Bank of India, presided over the function. Dr. Supachai highlighted the need for change in economic policy and governance in the light of the recent global financial crisis, and the need to refocus upon the goal of economic activity in building productive capacities and hence sustainable employment and growth opportunities. In order to achieve sustained economic growth in an interdependent world, Dr. Supachai suggested that a strong profit-investment nexus has to be supported by availability of markets to absorb the potential expansion in output. Thus, while building robust domestic markets is a key to long-term growth and development, exporting is also an essential feature of any balanced economy. Dr. Supachai also noted that a well-designed global financial system has to create equal conditions for all parties involved and help to avoid unfair competition. He stressed the growing importance of avoiding competitive currency depreciations and other monetary distortions that have negative effects on the functioning of the international trading system in today's highly interdependent world as compared to any other time in history. He stressed the need for reshaping international monetary arrangements that help avoid the build-up of large current-account imbalances and their counterpart, large unbalanced asset positions across countries that could address the current potential for regulatory arbitrage. Dr. Supachai further suggested that regulators based in different countries should share information, aim at setting similar standards, and avoid races to the bottom in financial regulation. He stressed the need to rely more on a multilateral approach, and opined that the same rules and regulatory discipline that apply to international trade should also apply to international finance. In this respect, he pointed out the long overdue requirement of a set of multilaterally agreed rules on exchanges rates, and a mechanism to correct long-term misalignment in exchange rates. Dr. Supachai opined that open-minded, tolerant and pragmatic approaches to the development challenge, consistent with today's increasingly interdependent world, are urgently needed to place economic policy and governance once again at the service of financial stability and economic prosperity for all. Download Lecture Booklet |