People's Democracy

Prabhat Patnaik  In UN Task Force

RENOWNED economist and Kerala State Planning Board vice-chairman Professor Prabhat Patnaik has been included in a four-member high power task force of the United Nations (UN) to recommend reform of the global financial system. Professor Patnaik is the only Asian economist to figure in the panel constituted by United Nations General Assembly president Miguel d�Escoto Brockmann on October 20, 2008.

Economics Nobel Laureate Joseph Stiglitz is to head the group, while other members are Belgian sociologist Francois Houtart and Ecuador�s minister for economic policy Pedro Paez. The task force will meet at the UN on October 30.

The task force, 'Interactive Panel on the Global Financial Crisis' will hold its first meeting in New York on October 30. UN General Assembly president Miguel d'Escoto said that he set up the panel in response to the current global financial crisis. He said the panel would also review the role of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) in the worst global finance meltdown since the Great Depression of the 1930s.

The UN panel is to undertake a comprehensive review of the international financial system and suggest steps to be taken by UN members to secure a more stable global economic order.

Miguel d'Escoto said in a statement that there was growing recognition that the current turmoil in the financial system cannot be solved through piecemeal responses at the national and regional levels but requires a coordinated effort at the global level. He said developing countries have not been represented in the Bretton Woods institutions to fight for their economies. He said it is time for the world body to seek the design of a new economic architecture that is inclusive and democratic to be credible and sustainable.

(from Agency reports)