B20 Summit | Global South will lead the world economy, but resources must flow in: Amitabh Kant

India has taken the G20 presidency to all its states and hosted it in 60 cities, making it a ‘People’s Presidency’, the G20 Sherpa said

The Global South can drive two-thirds of the global economic growth and for that to happen the current situation of resources flowing from the developing nations to the developed countries needs to be reversed, India’s G20 Sherpa Amitabh Kant said on August 25.

Speaking at the B20 Summit organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) in Delhi, Kant said multilateral development banks need to put a greater amount of indirect lending into the Global South. That is really the key. Money is available in plenty with all institutions, he added.

“Two-thirds of the growth of the world is going to come from the Global South if resources are made available. The multilateral financial institutions, the international financial architecture are heavily weighed against the Global South right now. Instead of resources flowing in from the developed world to the developing world, actually, resources are flowing out from the developing world to the developed world. This financial structure needs to be realigned,” he said.

The term Global South refers to countries that are often labelled as developing, less developed or underdeveloped. These countries are primarily located in the Southern Hemisphere, specifically in Africa, Asia and Latin America.

Kant said war can have a huge implication on economics. “G20 is an economic body. The political body is the United Nations (UN), which should handle issues such as the Russia-Ukraine war. But war leads to challenges in food, fuel and fertiliser and therefore, there's a huge implication in terms of economics,” he said.

Talking about reaching a common consensus during the G20 meetings, Kant said negotiations are happening between countries every day. “Every country is at a different stage of development and the challenge is to bring consensus. So, every country fights to the core for even a word. One key area where consensus has been brought in to a great extent is on lifestyle for sustainability. Therefore, we have come out with the principles of lifestyle for sustainability. It has been accepted by every single country and we will take that forward to implementation. The International Energy Association (IEA) has said that a mere behavioural change will lead to a 30 percent reduction in greenhouse gases and that is huge,” he said.

Kant said through the G20 presidency, India’s intention has been to drive for strong, sustainable, inclusive and balanced growth. “The world is getting into recession. After every pandemic, historically, the world has seen six years of protectionism. It is important for the world to get away from protectionism because free trade has lifted people above the poverty line,” he said.

He said India is hosting the G20 presidency at a time when the world is facing several challenges. “One-third of the world is in recession, 75 countries are facing a global debt crisis. You have a crisis of food, fuel and fertilizer, climate action. The post-COVID era has seen about 200 million people go below the poverty line. Around 100 million people have lost their jobs and the crisis due to the Ukraine-Russia war continues for over a year and a half,” Kant said.

“But, every crisis is a huge opportunity, the G20 presidency is India’s opportunity to be inclusive, decisive and action-oriented. India has taken the G20 presidency to all the states of India. It has hosted it in 60 cities of India and it has made it a ‘People’s Presidency’ in this course of one year,” Kant said.