Sinha for better ties with U.S.

By Sridhar Krishnaswami

WASHINGTON, APRIL 28. The Union Finance Minister, Mr. Yashwant Sinha, here to attend the Spring meetings of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, met the U.S. Treasury Secretary, Mr. Paul O'Neill, on Friday. A range of issues, including the intensification of economic ties between the two countries, was discussed.

Ministers of the Group of 24 and the Group of Seven industrialised countries are to meet later today while on Sunday, the meeting of the Group of Ten, as well as the session of the IMF's International Monetary and Financial Committee, will be held. The World Bank development committee will meet on Monday.

Mr. Sinha, during the next few days, will make a statement to the International Financial and Monetary Committee and to the Development Committee of the World Bank besides participating in the meetings of the Group of 24 and the Group of 20. He is also expected to meet the World Bank president, Mr. James Wolfensohn, and the IMF managing director, Mr. Horst Kohler.

PTI report:

Mr. Kohler said India's economic growth was ``strong and stable'' and this could go up to 8 per cent or more with more structural reforms. ``I am indeed happy that growth is strong and stable in China and India,'' he said at a press conference.

``The issue of growth in India is, of course, an issue of implementing the structural reforms. I think the Indian Finance Minister, Mr. Yashwant Sinha, and the Government are absolutely on the right track to have defined structural reforms as the major vehicle to lift up this growth rate of 5 to 6 per cent to, maybe, 8 per cent or even more.''

``More growth is needed to find a decisive breakthrough against poverty. So, I think the commitment to reforms should now be implemented into action on a broad scale, and I am sure the authorities know about that and are ambitious for that,'' Mr. Kohler said.

Curbs on protesters

Dozens of police patrolled around metal barricades and tactical units stood to ensure that there are no protesters when the world finance leaders meet. The barricades closed off a six-block area of downtown surrounding the separate World Bank and International Monetary Fund buildings, a minor inconvenience on blocks with no tourist attractions.

Opponents of the financial institutions obtained permits for a demonstration Sunday afternoon in two small parks across the street from the World Bank and IMF buildings. Organisers said they planned no civil disobedience that would get themselves arrested. Promising a noisy demonstration that will include puppets, music and street theater, the protesters are demanding cancellation of poor countries' debts to the institutions.

They seek an end to conditions the institutions impose along with their loans, and blame the institutions for replacing free health and education programmes with privately run operations that charge user fees to the poor. Some of the organisations have run a campaign, with some success, to convince unions, governments and private investors to boycott World Bank bonds.

At New York, activists said the debt owed by the world's poorest countries was a major barrier to fighting the AIDS pandemic and should be canceled immediately. The plea by such people as economist, Mr. Jeffrey Sachs, and rock star Bono, pointed out that the international lending organisations have a joint programme to reduce debt but have so far declined to wipe the slates clean.

'`It is morally reprehensible for the developed world to continue to demand repayment when we have a crisis on the continent of Africa,'' said Mr. Njongonkulu Ndugane, Archbishop of Cape Town, South Africa. ``One hundred percent cancellation is nonnegotiable.''

Mr. Sachs, an economist at Harvard University, said that canceling debt will give countries even more money to fight the disease that is ravishing the continent. AIDS has killed about 22 million people around the world, including 17 million in sub- Saharan Africa.

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