By George Obulutsa
DAR ES SALAAM, March 11 (Reuters) - China can lead the world out of the economic crisis thanks to its healthy foreign exchange reserves, robust trade surplus and massive investments round the globe, an adviser to the U.N. secretary general said.
China has so far withstood the economic downturn better than Europe or the United States, though the slump in the United States and Europe has hurt its export sector hard, causing factory shutdowns and job losses.
"I am hoping that China can lead the world out of this crisis first," Jeffrey Sachs, adviser to U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, told Reuters late on Tuesday.
"They did not have as big a bubble as in the United States or Europe. China has got lots of foreign exchange reserves, it's got a trade surplus, it's got lots of investment. China has the wherewithal to start the recovery first. If that succeeds in this year, then that would spread to other economies."
China, the world's third largest economy, usually runs a large current account surplus, with vast exports and relatively contained imports.
Economic data released on Wednesday showed that China's exports tumbled in February as the world's third-largest economy felt the full force of the global financial crisis, but capital spending accelerated with the help of the government's massive stimulus package. [ID:nPEK1013]
The country holds about $2 trillion in foreign exchange reserves. Its current account surplus stood at $440 billion as of end of 2008, up 20 percent over the previous year, according to government statistics.
Policy makers are aware of the chance presented to China to secure long term supplies of energy and raw materials for its factories.
MILLENNIUM GOALS TO BE MISSED?
The economic crisis has raised fears that rich nations could slash aid to poor countries, dashing their chances to achieve the U.N. Millennium Development Goals set in 2000 to halve global poverty by 2015.
Sachs said if the crisis went on longer, there might be need to alter the date.
"The 2015 target is getting tougher and tougher and so in this sense we are going to have to revisit this timetable soon. But I don't want to do it just by throwing up one's hands," he said on the sidelines of an International Monetary Fund meeting.
"We want every ... effort to be made, because we are talking about the world's most vulnerable people. I don't want to let the rich world off the hook because these goals count for something."
The United Nations has said that it would take $72 billion a year to help Africa, a fraction of what governments in Europe and the United States have put into resuscitating their economies. (Additional reporting by Reuters Television and Lesley Wroughton in Dar es Salaam; Editing by Jan Dahinten)