G8 to ask G20 summit to adopt 'people first' social pact

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2009-04-01 10:55

ROME -- The Group of Eight (G8) would ask the G20 London summit to adopt a "social pact" aimed at recovering confidence and dealing with the global economic crisis, Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi said here on Tuesday.

After a G8 Social Summit with the key word of "people first," Berlusconi said such a pact would "replace pessimism with optimism, mistrust with trust and transform fear into hope."

"We will assure everyone that we'll pull out of this crisis by working together and without leaving anyone behind," he told a press conference.

The Social Summit has reached an agreement on promoting "sound and effective policies based on common principles to address the human dimension of the crisis."

An estimated 20 million jobs may be lost worldwide by 2010 because of the global economic crisis, a figure which causes real concern, Berlusconi said.

The G8 ministers and their colleagues from Brazil, China, India, Mexico, South Africa and Egypt are "very concerned" about the forecasts, he said.

Berlusconi also said the "most important factor" in the crisis was for governments to adopt policies which "maintain social cohesion."

"We're facing two difficult years ahead during which we'll have to abandon some (planned) measures," he said.

Earlier on Tuesday, International Monetary Fund First Deputy Managing Director John Lipsky told the G8 meeting that the G20 nations could save some 20 million jobs if they spend two percent of their gross domestic product (GDP) on economic recovery, and these spending levels should be sustained this year and the next in a bid to help employment.

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