Fin Secretary, Joint Secretary attend G-20 preparation meet

I / Berlin May 21, 2010, 12:34 IST

Finance Secretary Ashok Chawla and Joint Secretary Alok Sheel represented India at a conference of senior finance ministry, central bank officials and finance market experts from the G-20 countries.

The meet was held yesterday in preparation of the summit of the heads of state and governments in Toronto next month.

Tightening international financial market regulations, including curb on payment of bonuses and executive salaries, and introduction of a global financial tax to involve financial institutions to pay for the costs of future financial crisis were high on the agenda of the one-day meeting, which was convened by the German Finance Ministry.

Other things that were discussed in the meeting encompassed, ways to introduce more stringent controls over hedge funds, venture capitals and private equity funds, closer scrutiny on the activities of rating agencies, implementation of structural reforms in the member-nations and consolidation of national budgets.
    
In her keynote address German Chancellor Angela Merkel commended the contributions of the G-20 nations in tackling the global financial crisis through their "collective and decisive actions".
    
"The financial crisis in 2008 brought the eight leading industrialised nations and the major threshold nations, including India closer and the G-20 became institutionalised as an important group for world wide economic development," Merkel said.
    
It is "quite important and appropriate" that the G-20 took the leadership in tackling the financial crisis and it will continue to play a key role as a forum for international economic development in the future, she said.
    
The cooperation among the G-20 nations, which worked very well during the financial crisis, must be continued to implement tougher regulations of the financial markets to prevent the financial crisis from happening again, Merkel said.
    
She called upon the governments of summit host Canada and South Korea to give up their opposition to an international agreement on introducing a tax on financial institutions.
    
"It is frustrating that the plans for imposing a bank levy cannot be taken forward because three nations are blocking it with the argument that we are not affected by that," the chancellor said.