Govt to initiate debate on new global financial system: PM

New Delhi, Oct 29: The government would soon initiate a debate on a conceptual framework for a new global financial system based on the p...

New Delhi, Oct 29: The government would soon initiate a debate on a conceptual framework for a new global financial system based on the principles of equitable and sustained development.

Inaugurating the 39th World Congress of the International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF) here on Thursday, the Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee said the framework for innovative restructuring of the system, including the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, was presently being formulated.

Inviting trade unions to participate in the debate, the prime minister said transport workers, in particular, had a direct stake in an early resolution of the crisis in the world economy.

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A sustained increase in global trade would mean the movement of an ever-increasing quantity of goods across the countries, he said.

To address the imperative of economic recovery, governments and transport unions together need to evolve solutions that protect workers’ interests and yet lead to modernisation of crucialinfrastructure facilities, the prime minister said.

He said India had a fruitful interaction with the International Labour Organisation (ILO) in promoting the welfare of transport workers. The country was among the few countries who had ratified the Dock Work Convention and the Occupation of Safety and Health (Dock Work) Convention, he said.

Referring to the laws aimed at protecting seafarers, stevedores and other transport workers, Vajpayee said the implementation machinery was being further strengthened and a tripartite industrial committee on road transport industry under the chairmanship of the labour minister had been constituted.

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It was a matter of national pride, the prime minister said, that trained manpower of 12,000 officers and 43,000 seamen in the merchant navy was sailing on Indian and foreign ships and earning valuable foreign exchange for the country and carrying Indian goodwill to far flung corners of the world.

He advised the transport workers to use cost-saving technologies andequipment, be more flexible in their work and not allow rigid job descriptions to come in their way.

However, he said governments and transport industries must ensure that physical and occupational safety of transport workers was never compromised to cut costs and called for global minimum standards for health and safety.

The ITF represents five million workers in the transport sector, road, rail, sea and civil aviation in more than 125 countries. Major Indian railway and port workers’ unions are affiliated to ITF.