Containers are piled up at Nansha Port in Guangzhou, Guangdong province, in April, 2022. [Photo/China News Service]
In a world marked by increasing instability, uncertainty and challenges to global economic growth, the need for a new world economic order has emerged as a platform for promoting international economic cooperation and recovery, Italian economist and businessman said on Saturday.
Giancarlo Elia Valori, in an op-ed in Modern Diplomacy, wrote that it becomes crucial to rethink the existing international economic order and address the institutional and structural contradictions that underlie these crises through the aftermath of the international financial crisis and the slow economic growth in developed economies alongside high unemployment rates.
"The sovereign debt problems of the United States and European countries have caused hidden concerns in the world economy and have become one of the major risks threatening the stability and growth of the world economy today and in the coming years," he said.
According to Valori, emerging economies have proven to be powerful economic engines, with China leading the way with its remarkable growth rate. The BRICS countries collectively account for a substantial portion of the world's population, land surface, GDP, trade volume and foreign exchange reserves.
"Such huge-scale economic changes have traditionally altered the international economic landscape and balance of power," he wrote.
"Without the economic development of Third and Fourth World countries, there will be no long-term stable development of the world economy," Valori said. "Developed countries should fulfil their international commitments as soon as possible and provide more support and assistance to developing countries in terms of capital, technology and political leeway."
Valori wrote that the dominant position of the United States in the international monetary and financial system, primarily through the US dollar, has undergone visible structural depreciation trends.
Amidst the debt crisis in the United States and the European Union, the resurgence of trade protectionism poses a significant challenge, Valori said. However, protectionism ultimately fails to save ailing economies and instead damages cooperative relationships with trading partners.
"The international community should therefore oppose all forms of trade protectionism and support a strong, open and rules-based multilateral trading system, represented by the World Trade Organization, in order to support the current progress of the Doha Round negotiations, the aim of which is to promote the first positive, comprehensive and balanced results of the negotiations and build a fair and reasonable international free trade system," he said.