London
18 February 2009
In his monthly news conference, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown laid out the groundwork he feels must be done before the important Group of 20 economic summit April 2 in London. Mr. Brown said global cooperation is key to speed the recovery from worldwide recession.
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| Britain's PM Gordon Brown displays blueprint for April's G20 summit, during news conference, 18 Feb 2009 |
The document spells out those areas where an international consensus must be built if the Group of 20 economic summit in six weeks is to be a success.
"If we can get that action in place and rebuild the trust and confidence in the world economy, then the recovery will be quicker and that is why we are putting a lot of emphasis on our meeting on April the second," he said.
Having met with the head of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, Mr. Brown then called for an immediate boost to the IMF's resources and for countries to avoid protectionism. And he said the preparation in these weeks ahead of the London summit are absolutely crucial.
"Now, if we can get agreement about both the levels of investment that will be put into the world economy and about a better system of regulation that will be worldwide and not just national and that our big international institutions can do more to speed up a recovery of the world economy, then that is in my view, a major step forward that will help businesses and families and homeowners in Britain," he said.
Mr. Brown says forging national policy without international coordination will not produce the desired results.
"You have just got to look around the world at the moment and see what is happening in Japan, what is happening in China, what is happening in India, what is happening in Latin America, what is happening today, which is very worrying in eastern Europe and you see this is a global problem. It cannot be solved without global action, international coordination. And that is why I have been pressing so hard that some of the measures we have adopted in Britain, we can persuade other countries to adopt and we can learn from measures in other countries that are working that we can adopt," he said.
Gordon Brown will meet to discuss economic plans Thursday with his Italian counterpart, Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi. He will also join a meeting of European leaders hosted during the weekend by German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin.