G-20 summit: Yudhoyono hopes for change to 'economic infrastructure'

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Tue, 03/24/2009 4:47 PM

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono on Tuesday said he hoped the upcoming G-20 meeting in London next week would produce realistic solutions to stabilize the current global economic problems.

"With the current global crisis, the G-20 meeting is very important. I hope the meeting in London will produce a realistic proposal to change the [current global] economic infrastructure," Yudhoyono said, as quoted by Antara state news.

Yudhoyono also voiced hopes that the meeting would help protect economies of developing countries, particularly by creating a "level playing field" as such braced for repercussions of the global financial downturn that originated in the developed world.

"At the previous G-20 meeting, I proposed a 'global expenditure fund' for developing countries suffering financial troubles," he said, adding that he hoped the G-20 would become a permanent mechanism to help shape a global economy that is more fairly balanced.

Yudhoyono is scheduled to attend the two-day conference in London on April 1-2.

The conference will be a follow-up from the previous G-20 conference in Washington D.C. in November last year. (amr)