BERLIN, March 31 (Xinhua) -- Russian President Dmitry
Medvedev called here on Tuesday for creating an new international currency
system ahead of the G20 summit in London.
"We should think about creating a new currency
system," Medvedev said at a joint press conference after he held talks with
German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel (L) and
visiting Russian President Dmitry Medvedev attend a news conference in
Berlin, capital of Germany, March 31, 2009. Dmitry Medvedev, arrived in
Berlin on March 31, called for creating an new international currency
system ahead of the G20 summit in London. (Xinhua/Luo
Huanhuan) Photo
Gallery>>>
"The current system is not ideal," he said.
"We cannot develop in the next 10 years if we do not
create a new infrastructure including new (currency) systems," he added.
Earlier this month, Russia announced an ambitious
proposal to overhaul the entire global financial order and even introduce a new
supra-national currency to avoid future global financial crisis.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel (L) and
visiting Russian President Dmitry Medvedev attend a news conference in
Berlin, capital of Germany, March 31, 2009. (Xinhua/Luo
Huanhuan) Photo
Gallery>>>
"We need to build a foundation for our future work,
and ensure that such crises do not happen again," Medvedev said.
"We cannot turn our work into just a set of narrow
solutions --add some money here, extend something's function there, and say
everything's fine... I believe that this approach is wrong. We need an entirely
new construction," he added.
Both Medvedev and Merkel are heading to London for
the G20 summit, which is aimed to explore the remedies for the global economic
downturn and restore confidence.
Merkel chimed with the idea by saying that Germany
and Russia share some common ground in their approaches to tackling the
financial crisis.
"We hope we hold similar positions as we head for
London," she added.
Merkel said the G20 summit, to convene on April 2 in
London, had to make clear decisions on a new financial architecture.
"It is clear that decisions on the new financial
architecture must be made," she said.
Medvedev stressed that the global financial
organizations -- the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank -- were
created more than 60 years ago, under entirely different global conditions.
"We need to think about how to give them the status
of modern, vital institutions," he said.
Medvedev warned against protectionist measures
adopted by some countries in fighting the ongoing crisis.
"Primitive, senseless protectionism that could lead
to the closure of markets, trade wars, and the emergence of high walls between
countries must be prevented during this period," he
said.
LONDON, March 31 (Xinhua) -- Russia will put forward a set of proposals,
including discussions on a global reserve currency, at the upcoming G20 summit
in London.
The proposals come as Russia believes the current global
economic crisis has demonstrated a need to abandon traditional approaches.
Full story
UNITED NATIONS, March 26 (Xinhua) -- Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph
Stiglitz Thursday called for a new global reserve system to replace the US
dollar as the world reserve currency.
"There is a growing consensus that there are problems with
the dollar reserve system," Stiglitz told a press conference in the UN
headquarters, saying that economists have been discussing the weaknesses of
single-currency reserve systems for decades. Full story
BEIJING, March
24 (Xinhua) -- Zhou Xiaochuan, governor of China's central bank, has proposed to
create a super-sovereign reserve currency as part of reform in the international
monetary system.
The desirable goal of the international monetary system is
to "create an international reserve currency that is disconnected from
individual nations and is able to remain stable in the long run, thus removing
the inherent deficiencies caused by using credit-based national currencies," he
said. Full story
