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Alan Larson, Under Secretary of State for Economic, Business, and Agricultural Affairs Opening Statement, Foreign Press Center Briefing Washington, DC, July 10, 2000

Preview of G-8 Summit The G-8 Summit on July 21-23 will be the culmination of a great deal of work on a diverse group of topics. The Okinawa Summit 2000 will focus on reaping the benefits for all of new technologies and our increasingly integrated global economy and community. At the top of the list of G-8 accomplishments, I would put progress made on the Okinawa Charter. This addresses the "digital divide" between the industrialized nations and most of the developing world. It also describes the G-8's sense of what kinds of policies and approaches are needed to fully realize the economic and social benefits of information technology. We believe it can help: improve education and health services; promote cultural exchange and understanding; encourage democratic governance; and encourage economic development and reforms. The leaders agree that strong, effective public-private partnerships are needed to achieve this potential. The private sector clearly leads the development and deployment of the technology. G-8 leaders will also focus on a comprehensive approach to poverty reduction. Sustainable economic growth is clearly fundamental to success, but growth strategies must empower the poor and meet their basic needs. There are four development priorities: Debt: we will continue to support debt relief for poorest countries to free up resources for poverty reduction efforts; Health: we will intensify efforts to combat HIV/AIDS and other infectious diseases, which can undo and undermine development; Education: we will strive to achieve education for all targets agreed in April's World Education Forum in Dakar which would ensure all children a primary school education. Trade: we will commit to mainstreaming trade into development strategies as a means of combating poverty. We will work hard to maintain in the G-8 a commitment to a rules-based biotechnology regime. The G-8 will cooperate as well to help improve the scientific understanding of biotechnology worldwide. Food security is a serious global issue, and therefore we need to make sure experts from both the developing and developed countries work together to achieve biotechnology's enormous promise in a safe manner. The environment will be a key topic, especially the potential for renewable energy resources. G-8 leaders will call upon the international community to identify barriers and solutions to increasing renewable energy supply and improving energy efficiency. International crime, including money-laundering and cybercrime, will also be a key issue. We will commit to completion of the UN Convention against Transnational Organized Crime and its protocols on Firearms, Alien Smuggling and Trafficking in Persons by the end of 2000 as a top priority. We hope to improve governments' ability to locate and identify online criminality -- "traceability" -- and to improve cross-border coordination to fight cybercrime through specialized training on investigation and prosecution. These are a few of the key areas we have been working on. There are a plethora of others: cultural diversity, aging, terrorism, conflict prevention, arms control, trade, and others will also be discussed. The G-8 will commit to measures identified by G-8 health experts last April in Tokyo: New innovative partnerships can accelerate development of new vaccines; Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs) will be asked to shift resources to basic health services: immunizations, prevention, and treatment of diseases; The G-8 must take leadership in initiatives to combat the HIV/AIDS pandemic, increase efforts to combat tuberculosis (TB), malaria which are devastating the developing world. [end of document] All Remarks | Economic and Trade Policy | Department of State