Props for the world economy
12 Oct 2010
India and China – the rising nations that are going to save to the world’s economic bacon. Or at least that’s the theory.
Some commentators have taken a look at the busted economies of ‘the West’ and reasoned that the dynamic of the world economy is shifting elsewhere. Some of this argument is rational. It is clear, for example, that the US is going to be no sort of economic powerhouse in the next few decades and this will heavily impact upon on its (fading) status as the pre-eminent world power in geo-political terms.
However, the notion that all power and wealth will shift to India and China is fanciful to say the least. Despite surges of growth what we are talking about here is developing countries that have all sorts of infrastructural issues and that are reliant (as every other nation and trading bloc is reliant) on close economic relationships with the rest of the world (the exception might be North Korea).
But it would be a very foolish person to discount the impact that India and China will have on the world economy in coming decades. Take India and the food-processing industry.
French minister for agriculture Bruno Le Maire has been on a visit to India. Indian minister for food processing industries Subodh Kant Sahai said that the two countries were attempting to double bilateral trade from $6bn to $12bn, with food processing playing an important role in this. The two sides discussed co-operation in the food-processing sector. Maire said: ‘France can help India in building cold chains, supply chains and invest in infrastructure in the food-processing sector.’
India and China aren’t going to stop the world from collapsing but they are building some awfully big props.
Lyndon White
Editor, Processingtalk
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