Priority 1: World Growth

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The Practical Steps the G-20 Summit Must Take
By Nicolas Sarkozy

PARIS -- Tomorrow, for the second time in only five months, the leaders of the world's top 20 economies will meet to seek a joint response to the unprecedented global economic crisis.

Since this crisis began, I have argued that when we are faced by a challenge of this magnitude, cooperation is a necessity, not an option. In September, I called upon the world to rally together with a response based on coordination and cooperation. Brought forward in concert by the European nations, that initiative led to November's Group of 20 meeting in Washington, where we laid the foundations for far-reaching reform of the international financial system. Tomorrow's summit must enable us to put into practice the principles we established.

The world expects that we will speed up the reform of the international financial system and rebuild, together, a better-regulated form of capitalism with a greater sense of morality and solidarity. This is a precondition for mobilizing the global economy and achieving sustainable growth. This crisis is not a crisis of capitalism but the breakdown of a system that drifted away from capitalism's most fundamental values."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/03/31/AR2009033103200.html