Global goals

• Years ago, the UN announced its ‘Millennium Development Goals’ (MDGs) to be achieved by 2015

• Overall, there was, and has been since, considerable if not total success in meeting them

 Global goals now needed are:

• The G20 should focus on growing the world GDP pie so that all populations can not only survive but enjoy life – GDP growth is not a zero sum activity – if one nation betters itself, this is not at the expense of another

• G20 economic aims should thus be:

  • To continue to grow their own GDPs by an average of say 2% per annum over the next 10 to 15 years

  • To greatly increase the GDP of each poorer GRoW nation – say by at least 5%, if not more, per annum over the same period

• That way the GDP and prosperity of the GRoW nations would steadily close on the G20, but the G20 would not have to stand still waiting for them

• To achieve such goals, the G20 should focus on helping the GRoW nations to help themselves and increasing trade with them all

• In short, there has to be a collective focus on global productivity improvement – more output and better outcomes for everyone from limited global resources

• Clearly, such goals were most laudable, and action taken certainly had some success

• But the UN can’t meet such goals on its own – it has to rely on the richer G20 nations for funds and resources

 · And asking G20 nations, individually and      collectively, to provide substantial funds for poorer nations is difficult in practice, especially nowadays post 2008