Investment in energy and science will combat recession, says Tony Blair
Former PM co-chairs two-day conference in Paris on future of world finances
By Deborah Summers (politics editor), The Guardian, 8 January 2009 13.35 GMT
Tony Blair today urged world leaders to look at the economic crisis as an opportunity to create a better future for all as he called for greater investment in energy, science, technology and education.
The former prime minister, who is co-chairing a two-day conference in Paris on the future of global finances, said that the current financial situation was the biggest, most complex and most delicate economic challenge of our lifetime.
But Blair warned there was no advantage in "make-work" schemes and that governments should instead strive to "invest, enable, empower and encourage".
"There will have to be support and help for the victims of the crisis. There is no doubt that unemployment will rise," Blair said. "What is obvious is that the traditional welfare systems are not properly equipped to deal with the scale or nature of the tsunami affecting us."
Blair called for a better system of financial regulation and said that reform of the IMF and World Bank was long overdue.
He also reflected on the "absurdity" of the G8.
"In fact," said Blair, "Take the G7, the so-called economic club of the world. Four European nations. No China, no India, no Brazil, no one from the Middle East, no one from Africa ...
"In today's world, no nation's governance, not even the most powerful, can work without a strong dimension of global governance."
The former prime minister's involvement in the summit, organised by his co-host, Nicolas Sarkozy, the French president, will be seen as further evidence that he may one day throw his hat in the ring for the position of EU president.
According to the Associated Press news agency, Sarkozy used today's conference to hit out at financial speculators for having "perverted" capitalism, which he said should be overhauled with a new role for governments and moral values.
Speaking alongside Blair and Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, Sarkozy criticized "an immoral system where the logic of the markets excuses everything, where money follows money".
Merkel said financial markets required new rules but said other global economic imbalances needed to be addressed, singling out the US budget deficit and China's current account surplus.
She deplored the "mountains of debt that we are accumulating to combat the crisis." But she recognised that, for the moment, "there is no other possibility."
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