Financial Services Industry Leaders to Call for Greater Doha Round Financial Services Progress

(PRWEB) February 7, 2005

On Thursday, February 10, 2005 at the World Trade Organization in Geneva, the Financial Leaders Group (FLG) will call for urgent progress on the Doha Round financial services negotiations. To date, there has been scant progress in financial market liberalization, without which the Doha Round will not be successful. An open, competitive, efficient, and transparent financial sector is a prerequisite for economic growth, and the Doha Round represents the first opportunity in many years to achieve meaningful liberalization in this crucial sector.

The FLG and its Working Group includes the leading companies and business associations representing the spectrum of financial services, and its membership is drawn from Australia, Canada, Europe Union, Hong Kong, Japan, Switzerland and the United States. The FLG played a central role in securing the 1997 Financial Services Agreement and remains engaged in negotiations in the WTO to further liberalize trade in financial services. (For more background on the FLG, visit http://www.flwg.org).

The FLG delegation will include representatives of more than 40 major global services companies and associations. The delegation will meet with the WTO leadership and with Ambassadors and senior officials from key developing and developed countries. The FLG will also lead a half-day seminar on February 10 at the WTO, focused on the benefits of financial sector liberalization to developing countries.

Who:     Mr. Norman Sorensen, President & CEO, Principal International, Inc., and Chairman, Coalition of Service Industries. Other FLG executives representing a variety of financial services industries will be on hand to address questions related to their industries.

When:    Thursday, February 10, 6:40 – 7:00 P.M.

Where:    Room W, WTO, Rue de Lausanne 154, CH-1211 Geneva 21, Switzerland

Contact:    

Ekrem Sarper

Coalition of Service Industries

sarper@uscsi.org

+ 1 (202) 289-7460 ext 33

mobile + 1 (202) 413-7214 (after February 7)

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