India has strongly advocated for making growth and job creation as the central message of the G-20 summit at St Petersburg. Calling upon all developing countries for making adequate investment in infrastructure Dr Manmohan Singh said emphasize should be given for skill development. Intervening in the deleberations of the summit, he said there is room for learning from international experience, including that of industrialised countries.

He said that to avoid restrictive measures, International labour mobility in high end skills has become an important aspect of global integration across countries. He cautioned that since there is no international agreement in these areas, enough care has to be taken for providing sufficient opportunities to the youth. Underlining the importance of small and medium enterprises in creating jobs, Dr Singh said several industrialised countries are taking steps to increase the flow of credit to small and medium enterprises.

India and Japan have agreed to expand the current bilateral currency swap arrangement from 15 billion dollars to 50 billion. The decision was taken during the bilateral meeting between Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh and Japan’s Dy Prime minister and Finance Minister Taro Aso on the sidelines of G 20 summit at St Petersburg, Russia. In a joint Statement, the two governments said that both the sides expect that this will contribute to the stability of global financial markets including emerging economies.

Meanwhile, the Reserve Bank of India in a statement in Mumbai said that the move is aimed at addressing possible short-term liquidity mismatches. It further informed that central government and the RBI will discuss and finalize the terms of the enhancement of the swap arrangement with their Japanese counterparts.