G20 London Summit > Commentary

Poorer nations should be involved in handling crisis

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2009-03-31 17:08

BEIJING -- The upcoming G20 summit in London is a good chance to cobble together an out-of-crisis roadmap, not only for the developed countries, but also for the developing ones, including the world's poorer nations.

While on the global "radar screen" of stimulus measures, signals from the poorer nations in Africa, Latin America and Asia have been weak and scarce. However, the poorer nations' suffering caused by the financial woes has no reason to be ignored.

The global crisis "hits Africa twice" and has left those poor countries to "face the very real danger of malignant decoupling, derailment and abandonment," said Kofi Annan, the former secretary-general of the United Nations who now chairs the Africa Progress Panel.

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Not only are the poorer countries most subject to the impact of the global crisis, but the very way in which the developed world has responded to the trouble continues to worsen their situation by encouraging capital to flee to perceived safety.

Lacking the means to argue their case at the top tables in the global economic and financial structure, the African countries face the very real danger of losing their voices and are being further marginalized.

The International Monetary Fund estimated earlier this year that global trade could decline by nearly 3 percent this year, and pointed out that poorer nations "are far more dependent on trade for growth" than industrialized countries.

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