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G-8 Summit Opens in Japan, G-7 Issues Statement on Economy
The leaders of the Group of Seven (G-7) major industrialized nations ended a meeting Friday with a statement on global economic issues, including poverty reduction, debt relief for poor countries, tax evasion and other abuses of the financial system.
Attending the meeting in the southern Japanese island of Okinawa were U.S. President Bill Clinton, Japanese Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori, British Prime Minister Tony Blair, French President Jacques Chirac, Italian Prime Minister Giuliano Amato, German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien.
Following the meeting, the G-7 became the Group of Eight (G-8) after Russian President Vladimir Putin joined them to kick off a three-day annual summit. Russia does not take part in the financial part of the summit program.
In the statement, the G-7 leaders said prospects for world economic growth have improved in the past year, but further action is needed to ensure further prosperity. They said vigilance and further action are needed to ensure sustained strong and balanced growth.
The leaders also expressed concern about the adverse effect on world economic growth of recent developments in world crude oil markets. They stressed the need for greater stability in oil markets to help ensure sustained growth and prosperity.
The statement also called on the United States and Canada to continue their current macro-economic policies to ensure sustained economic growth and low inflation rates. Countries in the euro area were requested to implement correct economic policies, and vigorously push reforms of economic structure to increase investment and promote employment.
The leaders promised to continue to work to further strengthen the international financial architecture, including reform of the International Monetary Fund, and multinational development banks.
On debt relief required by poor countries, the G-7 encouraged heavily indebted countries (HIPCs) to develop poverty reduction strategies to benefit from the debt reduction initiative.
They expressed deep concern over the military conflicts in the HIPCs and called on these countries to end their involvement in conflicts to allow debt relief to be implemented.
In 1999, the G-7 launched the HIPC initiative at a summit in Cologne, Germany, to deliver faster, broader and deeper debt relief, releasing funds for poverty reduction.
Meanwhile, the G-7 leaders also expressed their determination to curb money laundering. They said they would give advice and technical assistance to jurisdictions that commit to improvement of their regulatory regimes.
Also Friday, during their talks Putin and Clinton agreed to control the spread of missiles and missile technology. U.S. defense missile programs, which have been strongly opposed by Russia and other countries, are reportedly among topics of the summit.
In the coming two days, the G-8 leaders will discuss a wide range of issues including global security, regional problems, a common fight against epidemic diseases and international terrorism.
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