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. He stressed that Financial inclusion is essential for inclusive growth as being done in India.

He said the World Bank and ADB could create a special window for financing infrastructure development, including for ongoing projects that face a sudden scarcity of funds owing to volatile capital flows.

The aim should be to create flexible mechanisms which not only maintain the flow of infrastructure financing at times when other investments are slowing down, but actually expand such investments to play a counter cyclical role.