Roundtable “From G20 to G8: Re-thinking the Global governance"
Rome, 21 May 2009

The roundtable, jointly organized by the Istituto Affari Internazionali (IAI) and the Istituto per le Relazioni tra l’Italia ed i Paesi dell’Africa, America Latina, Medio ed Estremo Oriente (IPALMO), was held at the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs premises on last May the 21^st.

The event, which took place after the G20 meeting held in London last April and in view of the next G8 Head of Government meeting  which will be held in L’Aquila next July, was organized in order to allow the participants (high-level institutional representatives both form private and public sector) to brainstorming about the current financial crisis and the consequent need to re-think the global governance.

During the event, speeches by International economists as well as by high-level institutional representatives were addressed. The conclusions were delivered by the Italian Minister of Economy and Finances, H.E. Giulio Tremonti.

Within this framework, common root of the speeches was the concept that the financial crisis revealed how the traditional institutions (i.e. Bretton Woods ones and deputed Governmental bodies) failed in preventing and managing the crisis, and, therefore, a new governance approach should be evaluated and implemented at global level.

It is, therefore, necessary to develop and to deploy a new governance model defining and implementing new rules and standards, to be set at global level. The crisis showed that idea of a world revolving around one single center of power (USA) failed and co-operation among countries (industrialized and developing ones) will be fundamental to achieve the above-mentioned goal.

The crisis exploded as a consequence of the inadequate leadership shown by the various countries in ruling the imbalances caused by the end of the paradigm that characterized the last two centuries. The growth has been also to quick and to much based on debt. Fundamental will be the reduction of the disequilibrium among the countries and fair and efficient exchange rate policies, and monetary policies overall, will play a major role in this framework. Monetary and fiscal policies, together with a necessary reform of the financial markets are examples of patterns to be followed in order to re-launch investments and the world economy. The role in the game of emerging countries, especially China, in the medium and long term was also highlighted.