G20 Meeting
In a first for the G20 meeting, an elite business group was able to address the Finance Ministers and Reserve Bank leaders. A new organisation, the Energy and Minerals Business Council comprising BHP Billiton, Rio Tinto and many of the world's most powerful mining and oil companies met in the same hotel and could lobby G20 delegates over a business lunch.
The meeting of finance ministers in their communique called for free markets in oil and other forms of energy, and warned that economic policy needed to be tightened to reign in big deficits and 'easy money'. "We need to take advantage of the present strength in the global economy to get policy settings right," they declared in their statement.
The ministers rejected Australia's timetable for reforming the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, but reiterated their commitment to reform.
Climate change was not on the formal agenda, but a strong push by chief secretary to the British Treasury, Stephen Timms forced global warming and the Stern Review on the Economics of Climate Change to be briefly discussed as part of the context of promoting free markets as the way to energy security. The G20 communique said "We discussed the links between energy and climate change policy, including the role of market-based mechanisms, and agreed that the G-20 would monitor this issue."
Development aid was also given only brief discussion despite calls for development aid to be increased by Oxfam and other non-governmental organisations.
Read more about this topic: 2006 G20 Ministerial Meeting
Famous quotes containing the word meeting:
“Whoever invented the meeting must have had Hollywood in mind. I think they should consider giving Oscars for meetings: Best Meeting of the Year, Best Supporting Meeting, Best Meeting Based on Material from Another Meeting.”
—William Goldman (b. 1931)