Inspiring People. Shaping the Future.
Labor-market reform, the ongoing euro crisis and the presentation of INCRA – an international non-profit credit rating agency – are focus of the 4th annual Bertelsmann Foundation – Financial Times conference; China Daily joins as media sponsor of special session on China
Photos by David Hills
IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde opened the conference as guest of honor at the Foundation’s spring reception.
The 2012 Bertelsmann Foundation conference on 19 April 2012 took place as the US presidential campaign began to shift into high gear. With American unemployment stubbornly hovering above eight percent, speakers and participants discussed the viability of the US economic recovery and ways for spurring job growth. Morning sessions featuring National Economic Council Director Gene Sperling, US Congressman Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), US Labor Secretary Hilda L. Solis and – for an international perspective – German Minister of Labor and Social Affairs Ursula von der Leyen were devoted to these issues. IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde, who officially opened the conference the evening before at the Foundation’s annual spring reception, also devoted much of her
address to the importance of employment. “Jobs are really the ultimate purpose that we pursue,” she said. Afternoon sessions assumed a broader outlook as global economic trends became the main topic of debate. China Merchants Bank President and CEO Ma Weihua spoke about developments and reform in the world’s most populous country. World Bank Managing Director and former Indonesian Minister for Finance Sri Mulyani Indrawati, Johns Hopkins SAIS Professor and former International Monetary Fund First Deputy Managing Editor Anne Krueger, and Eurasia Group President Ian Bremmer were among those examining the future of large developing economies including China’s and Russia’s. The Foundation’s new concept for sovereign credit ratings, called INCRA, was officially unveiled. And a closing session, featuring European Central Bank Executive Board Member Jörg Asmussen, Canadian Finance Minister James M. Flaherty, National Bank of Poland President Marek Belka, and US Congressman Gregory W. Meeks (D-NY), concentrated on the eurozone developments and their impact worldwide.
DCene is the Washington, DC-based Bertelsmann Foundation’s occasional internal newsletter. It’s designed to inform our colleagues in Gütersloh, Brussels and Barcelona of some of the Foundation’s North American activities. ©Copyright 2012, Bertelsmann Foundation. All rights reserved. 1101 New York Avenue, NW, Suite 901 • Washington, DC 20005 USA • Tel: +1.202.384.1980 www.bfna.org
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