J. The World Economy


The World Economic Summit (G8)

The G8 summit of the seven most important industrial nations plus Russia took place in Genoa on 20/21 July 2001, when the emphasis was on social and environmental issues. A remission of debts for 23 developing countries was agreed. The differences of opinion on the Kyoto Protocol for the reduction of greenhouse gases could not be overcome, and so consideration of the matter was adjourned till after the UN world summit on sustainable development in 2002. The Genoa Plan for Africa was adopted for the reduction of poverty. It was agreed to set up a Global Health Fund of $1,300m to combat AIDS. The goals of education policy are a worldwide guarantee of basic education for all by 2015, reduction of child labour, and increased use of information technology for training purpos es. The main political issues were the situations in the Middle East, Macedonia and Korea.