Leaders from the world's major economies kicked off a summit here on Saturday to tackle the ongoing financial crisis and explore measures to prevent similar crisis in the future.
The summit, billed as the first in a series, is attended by leaders from the Group of 20 and heads of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund, as well as the UN secretary-general and the chairman of the Financial Stability Forum.
U.S. President George W. Bush greeted leaders in the National Building Museum in downtown Washington D.C.. Then they joined in a photo opportunity before huddling into the main hall of the museum to begin the formal summit which is expected to last for about five hours.
The leaders meet for two plenary sessions and each is expected to deliver a 15-minute speech.
Speaking to reporters earlier Saturday, Bush stressed that there's more work to be done to deal with the current global financial crisis.
"Obviously, you know, this crisis has not ended. There's some progress being made but there's still a lot of more work to be done," Bush said.
The U.S. president said he was pleased with discussions that he had with other leaders during the working dinner in the White House on Friday evening, saying that the discussions are "good" and "frank."
"I'm pleased with the progress we're making," he said. "I am pleased that we're discussing a way forward to make sure that such a crisis is unlikely to occur again. And I am pleased that leaders reaffirmed the principles behind open markets and free trade."
According to Daniel Price, Bush's assistant for international economic affairs, the summit will focus in a number of key areas.
First, the leaders will try to reach agreement on a common understanding of the root causes of the crisis.
Second, they will review what they have done and will need to do to address the present crisis, as well as identify several areas where immediate steps could be taken to address present challenges.
Third, based on that shared understanding of causes, the leaders will discuss common principles for reform to guide future work so as to minimize the possibility that a similar crisis could, in the future, occur.
With President Bush's term ending in two months, observers believe that the summit will focus more on principles than substantial results.
The principles include: strengthening transparency and accountability; enhancing sound regulation by improving regulatory regimes, credential oversight, and risk management; promoting integrity in financial markets; and reinforcing international cooperation both at the level of national regulators and laws through reform of international financial institutions.
The leaders are expected to wrap up the summit with a joint declaration and approve an action plan to implement principles for future financial reform.
In terms of the participation at this meeting, some had initially proposed that this summit be held among a relatively small group of countries, but it was later decided to have a broader mix of countries, both developed and developing countries, from a number of regions to participate in this discussion. For the first summit, the G20 offered a representative group of countries for an initial discussion.
The G20, an informal arena to facilitate dialogue between major industrial and emerging-market countries on key issues related to global economic stability, was founded on Sept. 25, 1999 in Washington.
It serves as an international forum of finance ministers and central bank governors from 19 countries -- Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Britain, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Korea, Turkey and the United States -- the European Union and the Bretton Woods Institutions, namely the International Monetary Fund(IMF) and the World Bank.
The group accounts for 85 percent to 90 percent of the world's total economy and about two-thirds of the world's population.
It is the first time for the G20, which usually brought together finance ministers and central bank chiefs at annual meetings, to hold a head-of-state meeting in view of the worst economic crisis since 1930s.
The National Building Museum, the venue of the summit, is a red, brick structure completed in 1887 and located only a few blocks away to the east of the White House. With vast and spacious interior, the building has often been used to hold inauguration balls or other gatherings.
Source: Xinhua
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