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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.
Acknowledging the worldwide recession requires a global solution, Prime
Minister Brown unveiled his blueprint called "The Road to the London
Summit, the Plan for Recovery."
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.
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