Tidewater Conference in Venice from 7 to 9 October
9/10/2009
The Tidewater Conference, a meeting which - devised in conjunction with the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) - is part of the calendar of activities devoted to development issues under Italy's G8 Presidency, was held on the island of San Servolo in Venice from 7 to 9 October. The meeting was attended by representatives of the OECD and of numerous organisations working in the field of international co-operation and Developing countries.
It was an "informal meeting, a free debate without any representational constraints", said Foreign Affairs Under Secretary Vincenzo Scotti, who co-chaired the Tidewater Conference. However, Scotti also highlighted the fact that the meeting proved capable of exploring "the general interests of the world, which are security and development", and even though no final decisions were planned, Under Secretary Scotti said that it was an effective way of "addressing issues in some depth".
The impact of the global economic and financial crisis on the achievement of development goals, with particular reference to the world's poorer countries, was one of the main issues that came up for debate. The debate, which took stock of the decisions and indications to have emerged at the Summit in L’Aquila, was not open to the general public.
Chatting with journalists on the issues addressed at the conference, Under Secretary Scotti pointed to the final declarations of the G8 under Italy's Presidency, regarding the need to "aim for consistency between the aid accorded to developing countries and the commercial investment policies pursued by the world's more industrially advanced countries". The meeting in Venice also aimed to conduct an overview of what has been achieved in concrete terms and of the pledges made that have been honoured to date, ahead of Italy's now imminent handover of the G8 Presidency baton to Canada.
