Leaders of Asian-African nations meeting in Jakarta Indonesia are calling for a new global order that is open to developing countries and leaves the “obsolete ideas” of Bretton Woods institutions in the past.
Their calls came at the opening of a meeting of Asian and African nations in Jakarta to mark the 60th anniversary of a conference that made a developing-world stand against colonialism and led to the Cold War era’s non-aligned movement.
The 5 day Asian-African Summit is held once in 10 years, and this is the sixth meeting of the group attanded by 34 heads of state from the Asian and African Continent have gathered at the Asia-Africa Conference in Jakarta.
Among the leaders attending are Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Chinese President Xi Jinping, who were expected to meet on the sidelines of the conference.
African leaders attending the conference are Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe, King Mswati the 3rd of Swaziland, South Africa’s vice president Cyril Ramaphosa among others
Indonesian President Joko Widodo, the conference host, said those who still insisted that global economic problems could only be solved through the World Bank, International Monetary Fund and Asian Development Bank were clinging to ideas of the past.
“There needs to be change,” he said. “It’s imperative that we build a new international economic order that is open to new emerging economic powers.”
The IMF and World Bank were at the center of the post-World War Two monetary order created by the United States and Europe at the Bretton Woods Conference in New Hampshire in 1944.
There are hopes Asian-African officials will meet more often under the NAASP framework. Some see it as a vehicle to exchange views on regional and global challenges such as terrorism and climate change in addition to economic issues.
Its members account for 75 per cent of the world’s population and 28 per cent of global GDP, figures that highlight the possibilities of bringing positive change to billions of people.
