Sunday, April 24 2005 13:20 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Bandung (Indonesia): Advocating democratisation of international institutions, including the UN and financial bodies, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today (Apr 24, 2005) declared that Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) remains a "valid and effective instrument" to ensure creation of "a more just and fair" global order and stressed for its revitalisation.

Addressing the Golden Jubilee of the Bandung Asia-Africa Conference in Indonesia after taking a symbolic walk along with other world leaders to commemorate the historic event, he said the global trading system should be made more sensitive to the needs and aspirations of poorer countries.

Singh also spoke about "lacunae" in governance process in some Asian and African nations and favoured its modernisation to make it suitable to the needs of the current times.

He remarked that he and other leaders had literally followed 50-year-old footsteps to the building where the historic conference was held and in which then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru played a leading role.

"In the context of the present global challenges, Non-Aligned Movement remains a valid and effective instrument to ensure the creation of a more just and fair global order," the Prime Minister told the leaders of 106 countries of Asia and Africa assembled In Bandung to commemorate 50th anniversary of the historic Bandung conference which led to creation of NAM.

He asked the Asian and African countries to "ensure that the architecture of international institutions is democratised and made more representative."

"This restructuring should include the United Nations and its specialised agencies and the international financial institutions," Singh said.

"We must also ensure that the global trading system is made more sensitive to the needs and aspirations of poorer countries," the Prime Minister said

Pointing out that NAM had played a central role in the struggle for political emancipation in the past, he said, "We need to revitalise this movement to make it a vehicle for social and economic emancipation in our times."

In seeking to address the challenges in the current times, he said, cooperation between the developing nations must increase manifold. "This will not only give us the benefits of solidarity, it will also force us to look within for suitable solutions and appropriate technologies to address the very basic problems that confront us."

Maintaining that the developing countries could find solutions to their problems amongst themselves, Singh said, "We can learn from each other's experiences, borrow from each other's best practices, and work together to find simple and effective solutions. But this will not happen if we ignore the importance of maintaining horizontal linkages between us in this age of globalisation."

Singh said the NAM countries should realise that if development is to be sustainable, it must be intrinsic and appropriate to their societies.

"We should be aware of lacunae in our processes of governance, which prevent us from effectively delivering services to our people," he said, adding "our structures of governance must be modernised and made more suitable to the needs of our times. Our goal must be to ensure the improved delivery of services to all our citizens."