"As usual the WEF will wheel out several global leaders among its 2,500 participants. The chair of the G20, French President Nicolas Sarkozy, addresses the forum on Thursday, January 27" Link ~ Davos Meeting Faces Global Burnout Threat (Wed. Jan. 26 - Sun. Jan. 30)
G8 & G20 Face-to-Face Annual Meeting 27th – 28th January 2011 Paris, FranceSaturday, January 1, 2011
FRANCE - President Nicolas Sarkozy to lay out French priorities for G20, G8
President Nicolas Sarkozy plans a press conference at the Elysee Palace to announce France's checklist of policy goals for its 2011 presidency of the Group of 20 and Group of 8 blocs. The list is likely to reflect the French president's oft-stated goal of reforming the international monetary system and his wish to create a G20 secretariat to oversee implementation of the bloc's decisions. His main challenge could be altering a perception that the G20 and G8 summits are ineffectual chat fests.
The consensus appears to be that the G20 and G8 summits of 2010 failed to make the global economy less vulnerable to crisis and didn’t resolve instability in the exchange rate mechanisms. The aim at the G20 in November was agreement on bank capital rules and financial regulation, but the leaders agreed only on a watered-down commitment to watch out for dangerous imbalances, according to a Reuters wrap of the meeting.
In a news conference on assuming the presidency of the G20, Sarkozy said he would lead it with "action and ambition," proposing a wide debate on the international doctrine of capital movements.
The debate became so acrimonious at the G20 summit in Seoul in November that the leaders agreed to a cooling off period before taking up the toughest issues again. These include United States insistence on "an aggressive rebalancing of the world economy," doublespeak for action on China's currency, which Washington regards as undervalued. The widespread perception in the G20 that the US Federal Reserve is pursuing an open-handed monetary policy aimed at undervaluing the dollar is another sticking point. The United States sought an "early warning mechanism” to police excessive trade deficits and surpluses.
In the aftermath of the G8 and G20 summits in Canada in Jun 2010 headlines about achievements appear to have lost out to headlines about security issues and the financial costs to the government.
The sense in France, according to Newsweek, is that Sarkozy is counting on his star turn on the international stage to give him the domestic boost he desperately needs as he aims for reelection in 2012. Sarkozy has acknowledged that he won’t be able to dictate behavior to China or Washington, but he plans seminars in China to address currency and trade issues, and plans to meet President Barak Obama to broach monetary policy issues.
The G-20 is made up of the finance ministers and central bank governors of 19 countries: Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Republic of Korea, Turkey, United Kingdom and the United States. The 20th member is the European Union.
The body was established in 1999 as a response both to the financial crises of the late 1990s and to a growing recognition that key emerging-market countries were not adequately included in the core of global economic discussion and governance. The inaugural G20 meeting took place in Berlin on 15-16 Dec 1999, hosted by German and Canadian finance ministers.
http://www.newsahead.com/preview/2011/01/01/france-jan-2011-president-nicolas-sarkozy-to-lay-out-french-priorities-for-g20g8/index.php
