British PM: G20 summit must provide confidence, hope

Source: Xinhua | 04-01-2009 10:11

LONDON, March 31 (Xinhua) -- The upcoming Group of 20 (G20) summit must provide confidence and hope to the world economy and the people, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said on Tuesday.

The meeting "must supply the oxygen of confidence to today's global economy and give people in all of our countries renewed hope for the future," Brown said in a speech to faith leaders and NGO representatives at London's historic St. Paul's Cathedral.

Leaders of the G20 major world economies will meet in London on Thursday to discuss further measures for revitalizing the world economy and reforming the international financial system as well as ways to tackle other global challenges.

According to Brown, the battle the G20 leaders are fighting this week "is not the old one against old enemies, but a new one, against global recession, against climate chaos, and against unemployment, insecurity, poverty and hopelessness."

He said the meeting faces several major tests, the first of which is to clean up the world banking system, curb the use of tax havens and introduce principles for pay and bonuses "so that instead of banks serving themselves they serve the people."

He stressed that the global financial system must reform so that future crisis could be avoided.

"We must reshape the global financial system for new times so that with early warning and precautionary action we can prevent crises like this happening again," he said.