Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said Tuesday that he does not expect much to be accomplished at the G20 Summit scheduled for later this week in Washington to discuss ways of addressing the international financial crisis.
He said he has only low expectations for the meeting because the G20 leaders have yet to have a "perfect diagnosis" of the crisis. But he noted that the first G20 meeting is "a promising start."
Lula made the remarks during an official visit to Italy, according to news reports reaching here.
He said he was satisfied with the fact that the G20, which groups both developed and emerging economies, is apparently replacing the G7 as the main organization to take on the crisis, said Lula.
During the G20 finance ministers and central bank governors meeting in Sao Paulo last weekend, Brazil was one of the fiercest defenders of such replacement, which gives emerging economies more participation in the decision-making process in world financial issues.
Brazilian representatives also demanded to reform multilateral institutions such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund in order to give emerging economies more say.
Lula also urged to set more rigid criteria for risk-measuring agencies in the world.
"I am disquieted by those U.S. based agencies that measure the risks of my country ... I have not seen any agencies measure the United States' risks by now," he said. "It is as if only poor countries could offer risks to foreign investors."
The president insisted that the WTO Doha Development Round negotiations should be resumed, saying that countries cannot stop investing.
"I do not need to be an economist to know that a healthy financial system is the one which invests in production," he said.
(Xinhua News Agency November 12, 2008)
