`India set to become fourth largest economy in the world'

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`India set to become fourth largest economy in the world'

 

HYDERABAD: India, one of the world's five fastest growing economies,

is all set to overtake UK to become the fourth largest economy in the

world.

 

According to UK Secretary of State of Trade and Industry Patrica

Hewitt, India has moved up the ladder and is drawing the new map of

the global economy. ``The economic geography of the world is fast

changing. India needs to take a lead in writing the new rules of the

global economy,'' she said.

 

But, she said, India had to face great challenges and find ways to

create new occupations so as to offer employment opportunities for

large multitudes of people.

 

Hewitt was addressing the plenary session on `International Trade

Policy Agenda: Going forward' at the four-day CII Partnership Summit

being held here on Monday.

 

Stating that trade barriers set by developing countries are hampering

the process of growth in those countries, she said they could gain

about four times more in benefits from opening their markets to each

other.

 

The greatest trade barriers faced by the producers of the developing

world are not the barriers put up in the West. Their own barriers

stymie the growth process, she pointed out.

 

``Halving protectionist barriers to trade worldwide could boost

developing country incomes by $150 billion, three times the amount

currently given in aid to those countries,'' the British minister

said.

 

Obviously referring to the criticism that the EU was giving huge

subsidies to its farming sector, she said the union had to make a

move to slash subsidies on its food exports. ``We give $2 a day to

every cow in Europe while over one billion people in the world live

on less than a dollar,'' she lamented.

 

``We are on course to complete the opening of our market in two years

from now,'' she said, hinting at good opportunities for the Indian

textile sector.