| | |  News Around the Republic of Mexico | April 2009 
President Calderón Speaks on UK Visit
 Presidencia de la República
go to original
| | Press Statement by Mexican President Felipe Calderón from London. | |
London, United Kingdom - I would like to summarize this State Visit and of course, the G-20 Meeting.
Firstly. We have felt very honored by this invitation from Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II of England and the British Government, since this is the first state visit by a Mexican President to the United Kingdom in several decades.
It is a visit that has enabled us to show that Mexico has fully assumed its responsibility as regards global challenges. It has enabled us to show Mexico as a country with a full democracy and open economy and that it is undergoing a profound transformation and has great potential.
This visit has elicited great interest among the British government and investment regarding the transformation the country is undergoing. Moreover, Mexico's participation in G-20 has reaffirmed us as a recognized, respected world player who offers viable solutions to the main problems of humanity.
We told Queen Elizabeth II that Mexico is playing a more active role to ensure that Latin America's voice is heard.
With Prime Minister Gordon Brown, we signed important new agreements concerning education, training and culture, as well as a Memorandum of Understanding regarding sustainable development.
In particular, one of the agreements signed by Mexico will provide us with funds from the British government to undertake projects and finance projects to combat climate change.
I told members of the British parliament that organized crime is a global enemy of freedom that the international community must face with absolute determination. I explained how Mexico is playing its part in this struggle and said that Mexico and the United Kingdom could form a powerful economic alliance to cope with the challenges of the future.
As you know, I met with Britain's top businesspeople and the most outstanding members of the financial community of this country. We clearly explained Mexico's advantages as an investment destination and of course, the actions we are taking to make our country a safe place for global investment.
I also met with important leaders of various energy companies in Great Britain, both those linked to the traditional hydrocarbon sector and renewable energy. I told them that British experience and technology could prove extremely useful to Mexico's efforts to modernize its energy sector.
It is a well-known fact that the world is undergoing an unprecedented financial and economic crisis which was precisely what led to this G-20 meeting, which is the second time I have had the honor of representing our country.
I believe that the crisis we are undergoing is global, meaning that the solutions should also be global. That is why we met in Washington in November and again in London over these past two days and we will undoubtedly meet up again before the end of the year.
The forum for G-20 meetings has a good regional balance, since it includes countries from every region and continent in the world. Moreover, the host, the United Kingdom, invited certain African countries and two more European countries, Spain and Holland. The leaders of the main multilateral organizations, the United Nations Organization, the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and of course, the Inter-American Bank of Development also took part.
In order to deal with the complexity of the issue, which involves recovering the world economy, the London meeting dealt with five main issues:
How to restore global demand and recovery. In this respect, we had the opportunity of describing the contra-cylical program we are implementing, which accounts for nearly 2% of the Gross Domestic Product. It is basically oriented towards constructing infrastructure, preserving jobs, creating temporary employment and supporting Mexican families with measures that protect their income and consumption.
Mexico stressed the importance of implementing contra-cyclical policies to reinforce countries’ economies. We also believe that international coordination of these policies will increase their effectiveness in reviving the economy.
In fact, this was the general consensus, not only as regards the G-20 countries' position on the government but also as regards the practices already being carried out in several of the economies gathered here today.
Secondly. International trade was cited as a tool for emerging from the crisis.
The Mexican government is convinced that trade protectionism would be a disastrous measure for solving the problems of the international economy.
This has been borne out by world history and Mexico's experience in the past.
That is why Mexico preaches by example. We are one of the few countries to have lowered tariffs and barriers to international trade, particularly since the crisis that began in September of last year.
We have reduced our taxes and we are determined to continue advancing in multilateral negotiations. At the same time, we have asserted Mexico's rights according to the rules of the World Trade Organization to promote fair, balanced trade between nations.
The third issue was the reinforcement of financial regulation, which was hotly debated at this Summit. In the end, however, we reached important consensuses on how to promote better regulations of countries’ economies, banking and financing systems and multinational organizations.
Aware of the fact that the developed world, particularly the United States, has been the epicenter of the financial crisis, Mexico agreed with other countries and proposed improving international regulation in this area, under the principle we have defended: more market, but better regulated. This is Mexico's vision, which we put forward here and which was largely reflected in the conclusions on financial regulation at the Summit.
A key issue for us was reforming international financial institutions, as we have pointed out. In this respect, this meeting in London has provided a wonderful opportunity to reinforce international financial institutions and make them more dynamic.
We have said that it is essential for the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and of course, the Inter-American Development Bank to increase their capital and grant loans more quickly.
Mexico stressed the need to capitalize the Regional Bank of Latin America and the Inter-American Development Bank.
And I must say that this was an extremely successful meeting, in terms of strengthening multinational financial institutions, including not only the Inter-American Development Bank but also the other regional development banks. We stressed this point and it was agreed that they should be reinforced through various mechanisms including capitalization. But above all, it was decided to reinforce the financial capacity of the International Monetary Fund by a significant amount, totaling over a trillion dollars, for all multinational financial institutions.
I would like to explain once again that in relation to this issue, Mexico is already asserting its right to open up an extra line of credit from the International Monetary Fund. Under the new conditions established at this meeting, and of course, under the rules of the Fund itself, it has a distinctive feature. It is a line of credit that Mexico could use, if it needed to, without being subject to any conditions.
According to what the International Monetary Fund and the leaders present here have said, this is in some ways a preventive measure that replaces the traditional corrective actions of the International Monetary Fund.
It is, in practical terms, a form of recognition of the sound financial management of the countries entitled to open these lines of credit. It recognizes the good financial management of certain economies, including the Mexican economy.
And I must say that, even without using this line of credit, it is a line that is available for the whole country that considerably strengthens our position and balance of payments.
Among other issues, we stressed social and environmental issues, specifically social issues. The G-20 Meeting confirmed the conviction to achieve the Millennium Goals and provide a humane approach to the tasks we have set ourselves as an international community.
We stressed that the crisis cannot stop advances in environmental or poverty issues or the goals regarding education, quality of life and healthy sent by the United Nations, known as the Millennium Goals.
In various forums and scenarios and of course at the G-20 summit, we suggested an environmentally-friendly road to global recovery, a green global recovery. In particular, I stressed the need to promote financial instruments to achieve the goal of climate change, which the international community is currently discussing.
And Mexico’s proposal for a Green Fund, which I explained during this State Visit and also at the G-20 meeting is precisely in this direction.
I stressed that from our perspective, the debate on global warming and climate change has focused too much on the search for consensus on global emissions reduction goals.
This is obviously not bad and on the contrary, I expect Mexico will support the consensus arrived at by the main economies regarding emissions reductions at the Copenhagen meeting to be held in December.
However, we stressed that in addition to the search for goals, it is also necessary to build instruments, particularly economic instruments that will create the necessary financial incentives to be able to advance in this respect and achieve the proposed goals.
This is precisely the aim of the Green Fund. We also stressed that Mexico’s proposal does not contradict the effort that has been made by several countries.
I think that this was an extremely successful G-20 meeting that will contribute to the support agreed on by multinational financial organizations and the way they are channeled into developing economies. In some cases, this support will be used to promote development programs and in others it will simply be used to reinforce financial positions and the balance of payments and in other to help less developed economies offset the impact of this economic crisis.
This Summit yielded positive results and permitted agreements, whose implementation will be able to channel thousands of millions of dollars through multinational financial institutions. According to various estimates, it will also permit the creation of jobs throughout the world on various continents and of course, we hope and we are certain they will be created in Mexico.
Lastly. There was an important discussion on the issue of tax havens. The G-20 was urged to homologize accounting rule throughout the world and prevent the opacity and discretional nature of the handling of financial resources worldwide.
It is also hoped that economies and financial institutions will be subjected to scrutiny, an issued stressed at the Summit. Through various organizations, such as the OECD, this will yield relevant, useful information on the behavior of various countries in this respect. |
|
| |
Vallarta Weddings
Tell a Friend
Site Map
Print this Page
Email Us