Citizens groups set out 6 point alternative plan

News|Bretton Woods Project|15 December 1998|update 11|url
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Leading non-governmental thinkers and advocates met in Ottawa in parallel with the Commonwealth Finance Ministers' meeting to discuss financial crises and the needs of the world's most vulnerable and poorest people. The meeting - coordinated by the Halifax Initiative, a coalition of Canadian organisations "for global economic democracy" - brought together MPs, NGOs, researchers and members of the public.

The statement it prepared condemned the initiatives emerging from the Commonwealth Finance Ministers conference for not addressing the underlying causes of instability and set out an alternative 6 point plan:

• Halt IMF and other initiatives to fully liberalise countries' capital accounts;
• Implement national and international measures to control speculative capital;
• Revisit orthodox assumptions about what constitutes sound macroeconomic and structural policy;
• Build domestic markets' capacity to generate capital, through debt relief, local development promotion and other incentives;
• Strengthen financial sector regulation and full disclosure;
• Establish a Commission on Global Finance to engage decision-makers, economists, academics, NGOs and citizens' groups in articulating a new financial architecture.

Contact: Halifax Initiative, #412 - 1 Nicholas Street, Ottawa, Ontario K1N 7B7, Canada,

Tel: +1613 2351217, Fax: +1 613 241 2292,

rjr@web.apc.org

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Published: 15 December 1998 , last edited: 17 November 2008

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