CRI听力: Emerging Economies to Play a More Important Role in G8 Summit

Reporter:
Shen Jiru, a researcher from Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, says the G8+5 Summit will be a pragmatic step towards addressing the global financial crisis and other major issues facing the world.

"The ongoing global financial crisis has almost affected all countries. The G8 nations and other developed countries are not able to deal with the crisis alone. So, at this summit, advice from developing nations will play a very important role in combating the crisis. "

The world financial crisis is the main focus of the meeting. Leaders are set to discuss a charter for global financial regulation, dubbed "global standards" by the Italian presidency.

The participating nations will issue a joint statement that is expected to focus on the response to the financial crisis, efforts to break a deadlock in the Doha Round of world trade negotiations, and relations between the two groups.

The leaders will also seek a coordinated position on climate change. The will discuss issues such as promoting use of new technology and cleaner energy and prevent further temperature rises.

Wang Ruibin, a climate researcher at China Institute of International Studies, says it's hard to predict whether the meeting will achieve positive results on climate change.

"Actually, there are a couple of problems right now. On one hand, the world economic situation is harsh. European countries are under great pressure to handle the finacial crisis and develop their economies. These have imposed external pressure on the negotiation for climate change. On the other hand some countries also hope to take the crisis as an opportunity to establish a better cooperative mechanism and develop alternative energy sources so as to get out of the economic slump."(www.hXen.com)

Besides economic and climate issues, the meeting will also focus on energy security, world food problems and the fight against trade protectionism.

China, along with India, Brazil, South Africa and Mexico, will attend the talks with G8 countries.
The G8 member countries are the United States, Germany, Japan, Britain, Italy, France, Canada and Russia.

Yang Yong, CRI news.