Special Report: President Hu attends outreach session of G8 Summit, visits Sweden

    by Xie Dongfeng, Ban Wei

    HEILIGENDAMM, Germany, June 8 (Xinhua) -- As the three-day summit of the Group of Eight (G8) industrialized nations drew to its end on Friday, the world still differs on what global mechanism serves globalization era best.

    It is no doubt that the elite G8 club has failed again to give a satisfactory answer as to how to provide equal opportunities to and seek balance in benefits of different nations through improved" global governance," which means concrete cooperative problem-solving arrangements.

    Experts are calling on the G8 to remain open to the developing world, to cooperate closely with major developing economies and sometimes learn to make compromise so that the globalization-related issues can be better solved.

    During the Heiligendamm summit, where G8 leaders had hoped to seek better ways to solve the negative effects of globalization through better global governance, they focused more efforts on solving problems facing the developed nations.

    But leaders of developing countries have stressed on a coordinated, balanced and sustainable development on the basis of mutual benefit.

    "China stands for building a harmonious world in the field of international development featuring coordinated, balanced and sustainable development on the basis of mutual benefit," said Chinese President Hu Jintao at the G8 outreach session with five major developing countries. "The issue of climate change should be addressed within this framework."

    Since the 1990s, globalization of world economy has accelerated, as has polarization.

    "The negative effect of globalization has already surfaced, that is the polarization worldwide," said Tao Wenzhao, an expert in U.S. studies of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

    In an interview with Xinhua, Tao noted that multinationals of developed economies have collected huge money from the economic globalization, but many countries of the developing world have failed to witness benefits as the number of the world's poorest countries is enlarging.

    "This abnormal phenomenon has affected the sustainable development of the world economy, which could be eradicated only after the world, especially the developed countries pay enough attention to it," he said.

    How to defuse and eradicate the worldwide polarization in economy should be the first major issue for the developed nations to deal with when they spearhead the globalization campaign, he added.

    The rich are richer, and the poor are poorer, in the era of globalization.

    According to figures provided by a German weekly prior to the Heiligendamm summit, currently there are 946 billionaires who have assets of dozens of billions of U.S. dollars, 153 more than in 2006, and 716 more than in 1998. The G8 nations boast 574 out of the 946 billionaires. The per capita gross domestic product (GDP) of the world's 10 richest nations in 1870 was six times of that for the world's 10 poorest nations. The ratio now stands at 42 times, said the weekly.

    As the developed world are complaining of low economic growth, high unemployment and sub-zero growth in population, the poor people in the developing countries are striving for a better living standard.

    At Heiligendamm, though the developed nations have pledged aid to Africa, they have also demanded much from the developing world.

    The G8 leaders call on the major developing countries to bear more responsibility on issues such as climate change, to further open its market of investment, and called for more transparency in purchase of raw materials in Africa.

    Non-governmental organizations term these demands as efforts to erect protectionist barriers by developed nations to cope with problems stemming from globalization.

    Prior to the opening of the G8 summit, Secretary-General of the World Trade Organization (WTO) Pascal Lamy said Wednesday that environment could not be used as a pretext to enact measures that serve only to protect a country from international competition.

    Norbert Walter, chief economist of the Deutsche Bank, also said before the summit that "it is a catastrophe the rich countries protect their weak industries, slamming the door on the noses of the developing countries."

    So, how should the international community cope with globalization challenges through just and fair means?

    Tao, of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said that the G8 is not an ideal mechanism to deal with the issue of fair development for different nations in the era of globalization, even if the G8 engages itself in a dialogue mechanism with developing countries.

    "To reinforce responsibilities for the WTO should be a better choice," said Tao.

    He explained that in the WTO, developing countries could have more say and express their wills and views more thoroughly.

    In Lamy's view, the G8 should accept emerging economies such as Brazil, China, India and Indonesia and evolve into a group of 20.

    "We must go more in the direction of a G20 than a G5," Lamy told the French radio station France Culture Wednesday. "We can no longer have serious discussions without China, India, Indonesia and Brazil."

    Dirk Messner, director of the German Development Institute, said the G7 or G8 must continuously open to the emerging economies so as to win trust for itself and empower it with capabilities for global actions.

    In an interview with Xinhua before the Heiligendamm summit, Messner said Europe and the West must cooperate closely with China on the political sphere, as China is already a big country with its own stands and interests.

    "As Europeans, we will not give up our own values and goals, but in the meantime, we must learn to attend to interests of China and Asia," he said.

    China could shoulder global responsibilities, and has started to do so, he said.

    If traditional Western powers and emerging economies in Asia can achieve a balance in interests, the global challenges could find "more shoulders" to burden, he added.

    Calling China a big responsible nation, Tao said China is assuming bigger and bigger shares of responsibilities, not only in the area of security, but also in economic sphere.

    Messner called for greater international cooperation in a world of globalization.

    "We need international cooperation, fair multilateralism and balance of interests," he said.