Thursday 3 November 2011
The G-20 Summit for 2011 begins on a despairing note
The G20 was established in 1999, in the wake of the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis, to bring together major advanced and emerging economies to stabilize the global financial market. Since its inception, the G20 has held annual Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors' Meetings and discussed measures to promote the financial stability of the world and to achieve a sustainable economic growth and development.
To tackle the financial and economic crisis that spread across the globe in 2008, the G20 members were called upon to further strengthen international cooperation. Accordingly, the G20 Summits have been held in Washington in 2008, in London and Pittsburgh in 2009, and in Toronto and Seoul in 2010.
The concerted and decisive actions of the G20, with its balanced membership of developed and developing countries helped the world deal effectively with the financial and economic crisis, and the G20 has already delivered a number of significant and concrete outcomes:
First, the scope of financial regulation has been largely broadened and prudential regulation and supervision have been strengthened. There was also great progress in policy coordination thanks to the creation of the framework for a strong, sustainable and balanced growth designed to enhance macroeconomic cooperation among the G20 members and therefore to mitigate the impact of the crisis. Finally, global governance has dramatically improved to better take into consideration the role and the needs of emerging of developing countries, especially through the ambitious reforms of the governance of the IMF and the World Bank.
Building on these important progresses, the G20 has now to adapt to a new economic environment. It must prove that it is able to coordinate the economic policies of major economies on an ongoing basis.
2011 will be the occasion to build on the recent successes of the G20 and ensure an active follow-up on processes already underway. It will also be the time to address other essential issues which are crucial to global stability such as the reform of the international monetary system and the volatility of commodity prices.
We believe indeed that today's key economic challenges require a collective and ambitious action which the G20 is able to impulse.
The Greek President, Mr George Papandreou, has been told by France and Germany to shape up or ship out of the Euro. He has gone off back to Athens to think it over.
On Monday, he had pushed things to the brink by announcing a referendum on the rescue package reached last week. This had let to chaos in the financial markets.
The Summit, which had hoped to focus on a whole host of issues like the reforms of the global monetary system and speculative capital flows, is now in disarray.
Greece will now hold the referendum in early December and also ask whether Greeks want to stay in the currency bloc, instead of a simple question on a new €130-billion bailout package.
Meanwhile, China has told the French President, Mr Nicolas Sarkozy, that it was up to Europe to solve its problems and that it could not bank on Chinese help.
To tackle the financial and economic crisis that spread across the globe in 2008, the G20 members were called upon to further strengthen international cooperation. Accordingly, the G20 Summits have been held in Washington in 2008, in London and Pittsburgh in 2009, and in Toronto and Seoul in 2010.
The concerted and decisive actions of the G20, with its balanced membership of developed and developing countries helped the world deal effectively with the financial and economic crisis, and the G20 has already delivered a number of significant and concrete outcomes:
First, the scope of financial regulation has been largely broadened and prudential regulation and supervision have been strengthened. There was also great progress in policy coordination thanks to the creation of the framework for a strong, sustainable and balanced growth designed to enhance macroeconomic cooperation among the G20 members and therefore to mitigate the impact of the crisis. Finally, global governance has dramatically improved to better take into consideration the role and the needs of emerging of developing countries, especially through the ambitious reforms of the governance of the IMF and the World Bank.
Building on these important progresses, the G20 has now to adapt to a new economic environment. It must prove that it is able to coordinate the economic policies of major economies on an ongoing basis.
2011 will be the occasion to build on the recent successes of the G20 and ensure an active follow-up on processes already underway. It will also be the time to address other essential issues which are crucial to global stability such as the reform of the international monetary system and the volatility of commodity prices.
We believe indeed that today's key economic challenges require a collective and ambitious action which the G20 is able to impulse.
The Greek President, Mr George Papandreou, has been told by France and Germany to shape up or ship out of the Euro. He has gone off back to Athens to think it over.
On Monday, he had pushed things to the brink by announcing a referendum on the rescue package reached last week. This had let to chaos in the financial markets.
The Summit, which had hoped to focus on a whole host of issues like the reforms of the global monetary system and speculative capital flows, is now in disarray.
Greece will now hold the referendum in early December and also ask whether Greeks want to stay in the currency bloc, instead of a simple question on a new €130-billion bailout package.
Meanwhile, China has told the French President, Mr Nicolas Sarkozy, that it was up to Europe to solve its problems and that it could not bank on Chinese help.
