India becoming core of global landscape: Lamy

He said in his speech,posted on the WTO website,that besides the key role being played by emerging economies like India and China,even smaller developing countries want a say in a system in which they have a growing stake.

“Over 3 billion people¿in China,India,Indonesia and other developing countries¿are achieving in a generation what it took the West a century or more to achieve. This alone stands as the most significant economic event in history,” the WTO chief said.

Quoting well-known economic commentator Martin Wolfe,Lamy said,”the periphery is becoming the core and the core is becoming the periphery”.

Globalisation has both enabled ¿ and rewarded ¿ a shift in production,investment and technology to emerging economies,he said.

While the US remains a key player,”It is no longer dominant”. The simple ¿ even simplistic ¿ North-South divide has given way to a more complex world of many different Souths and many different Norths. This multi-polar system is much more “democratic” than the old post-war order.

The days when a single or a few countries could design and direct the international system are gone. “Yet the old powers are cautious to share centre stage ¬ and worried about decline ¿ while the new powers are timid in sharing responsibility,” the WTO chief remarked.