Glimmers of hope

Although the world economic outlook is bleak, glimmers of hope are on the horizon. Quite a few positive steps are being implemented -- many countries, financial institutions and parties concerned are scaling up to cope with the emergency.

To fill the growing financing gaps in developing countries, G20 leaders agreed on April 2 to support a tripling of resources for the IMF to US$750 billion.

They also supported an equivalent to US$250 billion in allocation to the Special Drawing Right, the international reserve asset created by the IMF to supplement the existing official reserves of member countries, of which US$100 billion will go directly to developing countries. The IMF's concessional lending capacity for poor countries will be doubled.

The G20 supported an increase of US$100 billion in multilateral development bank lending to a total of US$300 billion over the next three years. It will support the World Bank's Vulnerability Framework, which funds infrastructure projects, safety nets programs and financing for small and medium enterprises.

China is contributing a lot to helping the world economy get back on its feet although it is still a developing country with a large poor population.

World leaders at the G20 summit in London on April 2 took only four-and-a-half hours to decide on devoting about US$1 trillion to support world economic growth and trade, an outcome that surprised many analysts with its scale.

China said it would contribute US$40 billion to the IMF to increase its financing capacity.

Many agree that China is setting a good example by playing its part in the worldwide economic recovery drive. However, the economy cannot be extricated from the mire without the concerted efforts of all countries, rich and poor.

(Xinhua News Agency April 26, 2009)