Schroeder, Clinton Open "Modern Government" SummitGerman Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and visiting US President Bill Clinton began a meeting in Berlin Friday evening.With middle-left government heads from 12 other states, the two were trying to draw up a blueprint for "good governance" in the 21st century. Over a dinner Friday evening in the Charllottenburg palace, Berlin, the leaders began talks about the modernization of social welfare system, and the new missions of the government in globalization. Presidents from Argentina, Brasilia, Chile, and South Africa -- Fernando de la Rua, Fernando Henrique Cardoso, Ricardo Lagos Escobar, and Thabo Mbeki -- participated in the conference. Also attending the meeting were the government chiefs of Canada, France, Greece, Italy, New Zealand, the Netherlands, Portugal and Sweden: Jean Cretien, Lionel Jospin, Costas Simitis, Giuliano Amato, Helen Clark, Wim Kok, Antonio Guterres and Goran Persson. The conference followed "the third-way summit" last year in Florence, Italy. A draft declaration said the leaders would agree on the government's role in stabilizing financial markets and necessary measures to keep social justice in the globalization. The draft also said the Internet-led New Economy would bring the world "unprecedented wealth." A final statement is due to be published Saturday after their formal talks. Meanwhile, some 200 scientists and government advisors from the 14 countries held another meeting in so-called "working groups. " Invited by Schroeder, the experts were trying to find ideas for leaders on the social system, education, the Internet and the New Economy. Scientists said they had agreed on the key of education in the 21st century and called for a radical liberalization of the education system. "In the future we will distinguish people as those well- educated and bad-educated," said Georges Charpak, a 1992 Nobel Physical Prize laureate who led a working group. |
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