Where and when is the London Summit?
The Summit will be held at the ExCel Centre in London on 2 April, preceded on 1 April by an evening reception and a working dinner. On 2 April, there will be a number of meetings including a working lunch. All of these discussions will be held in private. The Summit will be followed by a briefing for the press.
What's the purpose of the London Summit?
The London Summit is to bring leaders of the world's major economies and global economic institutions together to reach international agreement on reviving the world economy.
Taking place from 1-2 April, its goals are to:
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Secure global economic recovery - growth and jobs
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Agree the contours of a strengthened financial system - drawing on the Washington Action Plan
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Agree principles, priorities and process for reform of the IFIs
At the London Summit countries need to come together to enhance global coordination and so help restore global economic growth. World leaders must make three commitments:
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To take whatever action is necessary to stabilise financial markets and enable families and business to get through the recession
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To reform and strengthen the global financial and economic system to ensure such a crisis cannot occur again
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To put the global economy on track for sustainable growth.
Who will attend the London Summit?
Leaders of the world's major economies and of global economic financial institutions have been invited to attend the London Summit. This includes the leaders of the G20 countries, which represent:
Reflecting the participation at the Washington Summit, the Prime Minister has invited the Heads of State and/or Government from:
To ensure balanced regional representation the Chair of The New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD), the Chair of the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) and the President of the EU Commission are also invited. The Chairman of the African Union Commission will also attend.
In addition, the Prime Minister is also inviting the heads of key international institutions including the United Nations, World Bank and International Monetary Fund to contribute to relevant parts of the agenda.
Are we on track for a successful Summit?
Preparations for the G20 Summit are on track. We have a challenging and ambitious agenda. We have more work to do before the Summit, but that work continues and we have no reason to doubt that we can reach agreement on April 2nd.
What will happen on the day of the Summit?
The Summit will be held at the ExCel Centre in London on 2 April, preceded on 1 April by an evening reception and a working dinner. On 2 April, there will be a number of meetings including a working lunch. All of these discussions will be held in private. The Summit will be followed by a briefing for the press.
How much will it cost and how can this spending be justified?
Our current estimate is that the Summit will cost around ￡19m. This includes the venue, and event security / policing.
Costs will be found from within existing departmental and police budgets. Proper procurement processes have been followed to ensure value for money.
The London Summit is an investment in bringing world leaders together to co-ordinate global action to restore stability, growth and jobs. If action agreed at the Summit adds just 0.1% to economic growth, this would be worth over ￡1 billion to the UK this year alone, and over $50 billion globally.
The London Summit costs also compare favourably with the costs of hosting similar events in the past. To take examples from outside the UK, the 2008 G8 Summit in Japan cost an estimated $285m, and security for Germany's Heilegendamm Summit cost €92m.
Visiting delegations will organise and pay for their own accommodation. Accommodation for UK officials, event organisers and the police is included in the total cost of the summit. Costs will be found from within existing departmental and police budgets.
How does the London Summit affect me?
The financial crisis is a global crisis.
It affects governments, banks, financial institutions, businesses, homeowners, employees and families.
London Summit website offers an outline of:
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the origins of the crisis
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how the global community might rebuild the financial framework, and
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how, in turn, you will be affected.
What about developing countries?
Many emerging market developing countries, with considerable numbers of poor people, are already suffering from the consequences of the financial crisis. Tighter global finance will restrict private investments and trade credits. The global downturn will see lower export demand, commodity prices and remittance flows for poor countries, and is threatening social sector provisions and social stability.
The actions to stabilise the financial system and build the foundations for sustaining and strengthening global growth are essential in order to secure our development objectives.
The multilateral development banks (MDBs) need to take immediate action tohelp countries cope with the impacts of the crisis on the poorest people.
World leaders need to agree the principles for governance reform of the international financial institutions (IFIs) to make them more effective and legitimate.
What did the Washington Summit achieve?
In Washington on 15 November 2008, leaders of G20 countries agreed an action plan to fundamentally reform the way the financial system is supervised around the world, to make it more robust and prevent such a crisis happening again.
Work to take forward this action plan was mandated to G20 Finance Ministers and we have committed to delivering significant progress by the next Leaders' Summit.
Finance Ministers of the G20 now need to take forward work to deliver the 47 points in the Action Plan from the Washington Summit communiqué.
We propose to do so through four working groups:
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Enhancing sound regulation and strengthening transparency
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Reinforcing international cooperation and promoting integrity in financial markets
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Reforming the IMF
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Reforming the World Bank and multilateral development banks (MDBs).
Will the London Summit agenda cover climate change?
The main forum for climate change will remain with the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
However, we were clear in Washington that we must not allow the financial turmoil to distract us from meeting our wider objectives to meet the challenges of climate change and development. It is possible leaders will want to consider the link between economic recovery and moving to a low carbon growth path, as well as climate aspects of international financial institutions reform to ensure we can ensure a green recovery.
The G20 Finance Ministers will stick to their agreed work plan to consider climate financing issues, with the intention of feeding in this work to the broader UNFCCC process which will conclude in Copenhagen at the end of 2009.
The aim is to support and complement the United Nations process and we look forward to discussing a range of mechanisms including, in particular, further development of carbon markets.
Why do we need coordinated action?
This current crisis affects the world's economy not just individual countries or regions. No country is fully insulated from the effects and we must all play our part to reform and improve the international systems.
Many countries have already taken action to minimise the effects of this crisis. And there has also been effective coordinated action through Central Banks on interest rates and action through the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to stabilise struggling economies.
More recently, as the financial crisis has deepened it has spread from the largest economies to emerging markets across the world. Its legacy of recession in advanced and emerging economies is expected to lower economic growth rates in the rest of the world.
As members of the G20, we recognise that all G20 countries have a strong interest and a substantial role to play in supporting the global economy and strengthening the financial apparatus, and this is why we are taking coordinated actions at an international level.
What are the implications of G8 enlargement?
The G8 process is separate to that of the G20 Finance Ministers or the Leaders' Summit, although there is coordination between them.
Discussion as to the future size and constituency of the G8 is ongoing.
(http://www.londonsummit.gov.uk)
