India committed to reforms: FM

      Hyderabad: Finance Minister P Chidambaram said here today that the government was committed to deepening reforms to put the country on a high growth path of 8-10 per cent, which is needed to eliminate poverty. "We are aware of the challenges before us. It will be our constant endeavour to address these challenges by deepening the reforms and put the country on a trend growth rate of 8-10 per cent for eliminating poverty," said Chidambaram at a business session of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) 39th Annual Meeting. "India has achieved an average growth rate of nearly 8 per cent in the last three years that is a robust demonstration of its nascent strengths....As the country moves to a higher growth plan, there is a need to supplement domestic resources with foreign investments," he added. Our economic reforms over the last 15 years, the role played by the private sector and the rising domestic consumption had been the drivers of this growth, he said.

    Stating that the investment rate in the country was around 30 per cent of the GDP with a major chunk of it being funded by domestic savings, Chidambaram sought more foreign investments to take the country on a higher growth trajectory. He asked ADB to lower reliance on public infrastructure projects. "The Asian Development Bank needs to become a financial intermediary that helps developing member countries attract more private sector investment," said Chidambaram. Commending the ADB for its forward-looking medium-term strategy to assist developing member countries in their development endeavour, the Finance Minister said emerging Asia faces the challenge of maintaining high and inclusive growth leading to sustainable development. Referring to the financial costs of the Banks lending, the Finance Minister suggested that, given its robust financial parameters for the past four consecutive years, the Bank should restore loan charges to the lower levels prevailing before the year 2000 and not treat commitment charges as a source of income.

Common Asian currency proposed

         Hyderabad: A top Japanese official on Saturday said a common Asian currency would help shield against exchange rate fluctuations and raise the region's stature internationally but said he sees no political consensus on the issue. Finance ministers from China, Japan and South Korea called have called for more regional financial cooperation and decided to examine the idea of regional currency units, a first step on the long road to an Asian euro. The ministers were in Hyderabad, India, for the 39th Annual Meeting of the Asian Development Bank (ADB). A plan by the ADB for several types of theoretical Asian currency units (ACUs) has not got far, with some Asian countries doubtful that the development bank was the right body to explore the idea. Given the political sensitivities involved, the ADB has recently stressed that an ACU, which would be made up of a basket of currencies, would not be traded and would simply be an indicator of the stability of participating currencies. Asian countries now seem prepared to work together, despite political tensions among Japan, China and South Korea, because financial crisis in 1997-98 made them realise that cooperation was important.

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