Two prominent speakers addressed participants this morning at the International Summit of Cooperatives; Nouriel Roubini, Professor of Economics at New York University’s Stern School of Business and President of Roubini Global Economics, and Michael Spence (photo), recipient of the Nobel Prize in Economics (2001) each provided an analysis of the current global financial and economic situation.
Mr. Roubini noted that 60% of the world’s population consists of the booming Asian market, particularly in Japan and China, and also in India. In the next 15 years, China will be the most significant country indicating global growth, and systemic effects will be felt in all markets if its plan for growth is to fail.
To confront this reality, Mr. Spence says that we need to invent a new long-term model for growth that will allow us to take greater advantage of our natural resources, while staying in line with our growth objectives. This model must take into account the particular realities and diversity of each emerging country. And, because of its strength of innovation, the cooperative movement will be well positioned to lay the groundwork for this type of growth model. However, the work of an entire generation will be required for governments, institutions and all major economic players to understand the need to adopt this new model–a model that is better suited to the global economy of the future.
This ceremony was opened by the Right Honourable David Johnston, Governor General and Commander-in-Chief of Canada. He ended his speech by affirming his faith in the cooperative model, saying that the Canadian government recognizes the importance of the cooperative movement, that it is prepared to hear from cooperative members and remains responsive to their concerns.
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