G-20 SUMMIT YET TO SHOW ANY POSITIVE EFFECTS ON GLOBAL ECONOMY

BUTTERWORTH (Malaysia), Nov 17 Bernama) -- The summit of the Group of 20
top economies which was held on Saturday in Washington, has yet to show any
positive effect in tackling the global economic crisis, Second Finance Minister
Nor Mohamed Yakcop said Sunday.

However, he said US President George W. Bush's idea of organising the
summit
which gave some focus on the principle of reform of the international financial
architecture was good.

"Since last September, western leaders have been discussing measures to
resolve the global economic crisis as they realise it has been worsening," he
said.

"Malaysia has long had a formula to resolve the crisis at a time when they
did not even feel the effects of the fallout," he said when asked to comment on
the outcome of the G-20 meeting after giving out contributins to 33 poor
families at the Tasek Gelugor Member of Parliament Service Centre at Tasek
Gelugor here.

Tasek Gelugor and Butterworth are cities in northern state of Penang,
Malaysia.

Nor Mohamed, who is MP for Tasek Gelugor, said western leaders now realised
and felt the adverse fallout from the economic crisis which had also affected
neighbouring economies.

The summit, which convened leaders from Argentina, Australia, Brazil,
Britain, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico,
Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Korea, Turkey and the United States,
the European Union and the Bretton Woods Institutions, namely the International
Monetary Fund(IMF) and the World Bank, ended with a declaration, vowing to
enhance cooperation to restore global growth and achieve needed reforms in the
world's financial system.

They pledged to work jointly to resolve the ongoing financial crisis,
agreed on international coordination for stimulus packages, as well as new
market regulations to avoid future crises.

They have also agreed to seek a framework on a stalled new global trade
under the World Trade organisation (WTO) by the end of the year, as part of a
strategy for countering the financial crisis.

Nor Mohamed said that they were only now considering to establish a
financial system to bring back stability to their economies.

However, he said that whether or not the system worked, could not be
ascertained for sure.

"The G-20 summit also does not have the political will to bring about
change to the financial world. The role of the financial system is to assist the
real economy," he said.

-- BERNAMA