Click to play videoDavos: At the World Economic Summit in Switzerland, India's Commerce Minister Kamal Nath has projected that despite battling job losses, India's economy will see an annual growth of 7.5 per cent.
At the summit of the world's leaders, Nath said, "India is taking a hit but we continue on our growth trajectory, and this year we will have growth of between 7 and 7.5 per cent. Where exports are concerned, I believe in the current year, whatever the downturn, India's exports will rise by about 17 per cent. We are on track for that and the next year, of course there will be a slowdown of exports because of the contraction in the global economy. But our domestic demand increased, which we in government have strategised to increase so that the growth story is a domestic demand-driven growth story. And that's what we want to keep and continue stimulating."
Meanwhile, the former head of the World Trade Organization (WTO) launched a scathing attack on Thursday against the body he once led, describing its stalled global commerce talks as a disgraceful contribution to an economy in dire need of a confidence boost.
Peter Sutherland, now chairman of Goldman Sachs International, also questioned whether the United States and India had any real desire to conclude the Doha round of trade talks, which have now bumbled into their eighth year with no agreement in sight.
"The present situation is a pathetic reflection on the multilateral system, which everyone has expounded as being vital to future of the global economy," Sutherland told journalists at the World Economic Forum.
"It is nothing less than disgraceful that the discussions which took place in the latter part of 2008 ... have not led to a breakthrough," he added. "The world badly needs a confidence boost. It also needs an antidote to the protectionism which is already evident in the responses to the global slowdown."
The Irish businessman, who played a major part in sealing the last global trade pact, the 1994 Uruguay Round agreement, said the job of politicians is to "unequivocally face the challenges of their time."
Sutherland, the global trade chief from 1993-1995, said WTO members states were absolutely failing in that regard at the moment, and urged a meeting of trade ministers this weekend in Davos to make a radical break with months of failure.
"It really is time for something more than generalized rhetoric," he said. "If, on Saturday, the outcome of the discussion is not different but just a repetition of what has been said for years now in the context of the Doha round — that everyone is in favor of it but somehow can't reach an agreement — it will be a totally inadequate response to the situation we find ourselves in."
The gathering, however, offers little hope for concrete action on a deal that would free up trade in industrial goods and farm produce as President Barack Obama's proposed US trade chief, former Dallas mayor Ron Kirk, will not attend.
The US will be represented by Bush administration holdover Peter Allgeier, the former American ambassador to the WTO.
Many have blamed the United States for losing interest in the round ahead of the November presidential election, and for doing little to revive it since.
"It's not good enough for ministers to say 'We have an election coming up,'" Sutherland said. "Nor is it good enough to say 'We just had an election.'"
Sutherland also criticized the bailouts going on around the world as a form of "uncoordinated subsidization" that could seriously damage markets based on the idea that competition spurs efficiency and innovation.
(With inputs from Associated Press)
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