Arroyo: Poor must be taken into account in global crisis solution

Arroyo's sentiments can hardly be faulted but her actions in feeding pork to her supporters and the corruption in her government does little to help the poor. Her point about developing countries being left out as far as decision making as far as global financial reconstruction is concerned is no doubt valid as well. The draconian restrictions of the IMF and World Bank seem to have gone by the board when it comes to bailing out developed countries!



By abraham_baladad
Created 02/01/2009 - 19:59
Arroyo: Poor must be taken into account in global crisis solution [1]
abs-cbnNEWS.com 02/01/2009 7:59 PM
President Arroyo on Saturday told leaders of governments and industries at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Switzerland that discussions on resolving the global economic downturn must take into account those who need it most – the poor.
“We must not neglect those who feel the hardship of the global downturn the most and that is the poor. Any solution must take that into the account,” said Mrs. Arroyo in opening her contribution to a session of the WEF.
The Philippine president was one of the members of the panel in the “Rebooting the Global Economy” session held Saturday in Davos, Switzerland.
Mrs. Arroyo also batted for more participation of emerging and underdeveloped countries.
“We need to have represented in the coordinated policy-making of the world diverse kinds of economies - if we don't have then perspective will be lost and new ideas will not be gained,” said the Philippine president.
Arroyo cited that the G7 discussions must expand into the G20 and “even G30.”
The Philippine president said that “it is ironic that developing countries now are doing better than the developed countries and yet if they will not have a say in the how to restructure the world economy, that is really wrong.”
'Radical rethinking'Mrs. Arroyo also told leaders gathered at the forum that a ”radical rethinking in the world” was needed.
“We need a fundamental reform of the global financial regulation,” said Mrs. Arroyo. “Doha must continue, must be completed - interest of the developing countries can take the rightful place in the global structure of the economy.”
The Doha talks is the current trade-negotiation round of the World Trade Organization (WTO) which commenced in November 2001. Its supposed objective is to lower trade barriers around the world to allows countries to increase trade globally. As of 2008, talks have stalled over a divide on major issues.
'Bitter pill'Mrs. Arroyo also said the Philippines had some preparation before the global crisis struck citing the reforms undertaken in the years prior to the current downturn.
“We took our bitter medicine years ago when we implemented painful fiscal and financial reforms. So when it struck we had revenues to be able to invest in people as well in infrastructure for the fiscal stimulus,” said Arroyo as she cited 8 percent and 6 percent domestic growth in 2007 and 2008, respectively.
Mrs. Arroyo was asked by a New York times journalist in the open forum on her reaction should the US in implementing its economic stimulus package which would need trillions of dollars and crowd out developing countries such as the Philippines in tapping credit in the world market.
“As far as the Philippine government is concerned, we have already financed our needs for the rest of the year. so we are not worried about that. As far as the private sector is concerned, we have a lot of liquidity in our Philippine banking system. In our fiscal stimulus package, private banks are a very important part of it,” answered Mrs. Arroyo.
‘Time for solution’When asked if she thought it was fair that poor nations are now suffering because of “excessive spending” by the US, the President said "it’s not a time for blame tossing, its a time for looking for the solution."
She said that “Filipinos love America. It’s so easy to have 20/20 vision on hindsight.”
She also said that before “the bubble burst… Everybody was benefitting from American prosperity.” She cited that the Philippines also benefitted during the growth of previous years especially through the remittances of migrants and Filipino workers in the US.
The president added that “what we want is for the US to do something, the last thing we want is for US is to do nothing.”
The session was moderated by Matthew A. Winkler, editor in chief of Bloomberg News. Other members of the panel were Thailand’s Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva of Thailand, Angel Gurría, Secretary-General of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), Yoshihiko Miyauchi Chairman and CEO of Japan's biggest non-bank financial institution Orix Corp. and Prof. Joseph E. Stiglitz, the Nobel Prize-winning economist from Columbia University.
G7 or Group of Seven is the meeting of finance ministers from a group of seven industrialized nations - Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, United Kingdom, and United States of America. The finance ministers of these countries meet several times a year to discuss economic policies. G20 or the G-20 Leaders Summit on Financial Markets and the World Economy recently met November 2008 in Washington DC to discuss the current global downturn. It reportedly achieved general agreement amongst on how to cooperate in key areas so as to strengthen economic growth, deal with the global financial crisis, and lay the foundation for reform to avoid similar crises in the future. A follow-up summit is set to be held on April in London. With a report from Nadia Trinidad, ABS-CBN News
as of 02/01/2009 8:58 PM