French president Sarkozy, who will preside over the G-20 in 2011, has said that he would like world leaders to focus on international financial system reform, including a code of conduct on capital flow.
This occurs against a background of serious economic problems in some European countries, such as Greece, Portugal and Ireland. The political and business leaders in Davos this year will be seeking strategies and solutions to deal with a series of global challenges.
According to Sarkozy, although it is not possible to set exchange rates, something should be done to avoid currency wars. Another issue that will certainly be discussed at Davos, as well as the G-20, is food security and the prices of commodities. Especially, food prices: the price of wheat, for example, has risen by over 90% in the last year.
President Dilma Rousseff will not go to Switzerland, but will send the president of the Central Bank, Alexandre Tombrini, and her Foreign Minister, Antonio Patriota. Both are competent representatives of Brazil’s positions.
It should be recalled that former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva chose not to go to Davos in 2009, preferring to send a message about the international financial crisis. Lula’s message was for the crisis to serve as a lesson for the need to rethink the world’s economic system.
ABr