(Archived Content)
FROM THE OFFICE OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS
JS-406
I enjoyed the opportunity to meet - for the third time since being sworn in as U.S. Treasury Secretary - with my fellow finance ministers in Deauville this weekend to help prepare for our Leadersmeeting in Evian.
Strengthening global growth must be the top priority for the G-8. I delivered that strong message today. Growth in the major economies is simply not what it could be. We need to do more to ensure a robust recovery. I provided an update on the actions taken by the United States. The Presidents Jobs and Growth plan will accelerate the U.S. recovery. I made clear that the United States expects others to take bold actions themselves including fundamental structural reforms where necessary to spur growth, create jobs and contribute to global prosperity.
My colleagues and I commend the World Bank and the IMF for agreeing to expedite their needs assessment activity in Iraq. We discussed the need to obtain the full participation of the international financial institutions to help Iraq to rebuild and to rejoin the international economy. We stressed the importance of beginning a process for countries to donate funds for reconstruction in Iraq. We discussed the problem of Iraqs large debt. We formally asked the IMF to assess the debt situation for countries outside the Paris Club. There was recognition that we cannot expect Iraq to make any service payments on that debt at least through the end of 2004.
I urged my fellow ministers to make seized assets available to the Iraqi people and to aggressively continue the search for the illegal assets of the corrupt regime of Saddam Hussein. Our task is clear identify and repatriate all assets for the betterment of the Iraqi people. More generally, I also spoke about terrorism financing, reminding my colleagues that we need to maintain focus and momentum in this ongoing fight.
Turning to corporate governance, we all voiced our support for steps to help ensure accountability and promote transparency. I assured my colleagues that the United States would continue to take actions necessary to implement the provisions of Sarbanes-Oxley. We remain committed to seeing these reforms fully implemented in order to bolster investor confidence. I was also pleased to see that the issue of the high costs of litigation was reviewed as a burden on economic growth.
On crisis prevention and resolution, we reflected on the extremely positive recent developments on collective action clauses. I believe that the actions taken, most recently by South Africa, represent a very significant and concrete step toward improved performance and increased capital flow to emerging markets. We all encourage other countries to follow this lead, so that collective action clauses become routine. Of note, we welcome the successful outcomes in Uruguay. We support Uruguays co-operative approach with creditors and their responsible efforts to achieve debt sustainability and implement essential economic reforms.
Raising economic growth in our own economies is the most important thing we can do to improve the prospects for developing economies at this time. Higher growth in the G-8 leads directly to better economic results for the developing economies particularly as it creates the opportunity for more trade with rising exports from the developing countries. The G-8 needs to be more focused on measurable results and rewarding countries that deliver on economic reform. The Presidents Millennium Challenge Account initiative is designed to provide incentives, offering substantial additional assistance to reward strong policies. And I discussed with my colleagues the remarkable increase in development assistance proposed by President Bush, including the MCA, new money to combat HIV/AIDs and new money to address famine and food security worldwide.