Former UN official hails China`s role as a catalyst and supporter of multilateralism

Watching the increasing influence of the emerging economies on the global stage seems to give Carlos Magarinos as much pleasure as listening to his favorite jazz music.

"For the first time this year, emerging economies contributed over half of the world`s GDP in purchasing power terms," says Magarinos, 52, former director-general of the United Nations Industrial Development Organization.

Carlos Magarinos says emerging economies will face a future quite different to the exceptional period they have lived through over the past decade. Zhu Xingxin / China Daily
 

"The emerging economies will continue to provide two-thirds of global growth despite less dynamic performance in a more demanding financial context," says Magarinos, the honorary global chairman of the Global Alliance of Small and Medium Enterprises, based in Shanghai, as well as senior fellow at Chongyan Institute for Financial Studies of Renmin University.

This trend seems to follow a set pattern, with a leading role for Asian economies in general and China in particular, which is both the result of and the catalyst for the emergence of a new global middle class, he says.

"By 2020 the global middle class will have grown to 1,400 million people, most living in Asia. The spending capacity of this new global middle class will experience a significant boost."

Magarinos was speaking in the lobby of the Shangri-La hotel in the Haidian district of Beijing about 9:30 pm, after a two-day conference held by Renmin University of China relating to G20 and global growth, one of those attending being former US president Jimmy Carter.

Magarinos, senior fellow at Chongyan Institute for Financial Studies of Renmin University, says there are many opportunities for emerging economies to adopt new roles and responsibilities.