VOA双语新闻 India to Attend G-7 Meeting for First Time（在线收听）

India is set to attend the forthcoming finance meeting of the Group of Seven leading industrial nations in London. India's presence at the meeting reflects its rise on the world economic stage.

印度准备参加即将在伦敦举行的由全球工业最发达国家组成的7国集团会议。印度出席这次会议反映印度在世界经济舞台上的地位已经提高。

Indian Finance Minister P. Chidambaram says he will attend a meeting of finance heads from the Group of Seven nations in February in London.

印度财政部长奇丹巴拉姆说，他将参加二月在伦敦举行的七国集团财政部长会议。

He will join his counterparts from four other rapidly developing countries who have been invited to the meeting. Like India, Brazil and South Africa have been asked for the first time. China has been invited for the second time, while Russia has been attending the meetings for many years.

除了印度之外，另外还有四个快速成长的发展中国家也受邀参加这个会议。巴西和南非与印度一样，都是第一次受到邀请。而中国已经是第二次受邀，俄罗斯则已经参加了好多年了。

The G-7 nations are the United States, Japan, Germany, Britain, France, Italy and Canada. The group functions as a kind of global economic council.

七国集团包括美国、日本、德国、英国、法国、意大利和加拿大。这个集团的作用相当于某种全球经济委员会。

Economist C.D. Wadhwa of the Center for Policy Research in New Delhi said the invitation to India reflects the growing global importance of one of the world's fastest-growing economies. "This is a recognition that India is an emerging (economic) power. It has already made the mark and by 2020 it will have much greater role to play, and therefore it is important for G-7 to involve it in the reshaping of any international economic order that they think about," he said.

新德里政策研究中心的经济学家瓦德华说，七国集团邀请印度与会，反映了印度作为全球成长最快速的经济体之一在全球经济的重要性也在上升。他说：“这是承认印度是一个新兴的经济大国。印度已经引起了世界的注意，而到了2020年，印度还将扮演更大的角色，因此对七国集团来说，让印度介入他们改造国际经济秩序的讨论之中，相当重要。”

In recent years critics have said the G-7 no longer reflects the reality of the global economy, and have advocated its expansion or reform to account for the rise of new economic powerhouses.

近年来，批评者说，七国集团已经无法反映全球经济的现实，并且主张七国集团应该进行扩大或改造，反映新兴经济国家的崛起。

Mr. Wadhwa says any such changes will have to take into account China and India, which together are home to more than one-third of the world's six billion people, and which have both experienced rapid economic growth over the past few years.

瓦德华说，任何改变都必须要考虑到中国和印度，这两国的人口总和占全球60亿人口三分之一以上，而最近几年，两国经济成长都十分快速。

India's economy grew 8.2 percent in the year ending April 2004, and is expected to grow another seven percent his year. Economists widely expect the nation of one billion people to sustain growth of around seven percent over the next decade.

到2004年四月为止，印度经济成长率为百分之8.2，今年可望也有百分之7。经济学家普遍相信，这个拥有十亿人口的国家未来十年的经济成长率都将维持在百分之7左右。