The G8 Summit Gets Under Way in L’Aquila
The first day of the G8 Summit in L'Aquila has begun. The Heads of State and Government Leaders are due to arrive in the course of the morning. The Summit gets under way officially at 13:00 with a working luncheon for the G8 leaders, devoted to the global economy.
40 delegations will be taking part in the Summit in L'Aquila. The 27 Heads of State and Government leaders taking part in the Summit represent over 80% of the world's economy. The Summit is being held entirely within the grounds of the Guardia di Finanza Inspectors' School in Coppito, where over 1,500 delegates and 3,700 journalists will be working side by side. A total of approximately 4,000 delegates, housed both in the Guardia di Finanza Inspectors' School in Coppito and in 40 hotels in the Abruzzo region, will be attending the event.
Chinese President Hu Jintao will not be attending the Summit because the deterioration of the crisis in Xinjiang, a region in northwestern China, has forced him to return home. The delegation of the People's Republic of China, which has been invited to attend the Summit in its capacity as a member of the G5 group (together with Brasil, India, Mexico and South Africa), will, however, continue to play a regular part in the Summit.
Fully 10 lodging complexes totalling 1,090 rooms have been restored in order to bring the Guardia di Finanza Inspectors' School structures into line with the requirements of an event of the G8 Summit's calibre. In the coming months the lodgings will be used to provide temporary accommodation for Abruzzo families who lost their homes in the earthquake. The L'Aquila G8 summit venue is a showcase of exclusively Italian work, from the furnishings to the electric vehicles in which the Heads of State and Government Leaders will be travelling around the complex, and including of course the catering, which will consist of 100% local Abruzzo cuisine. By the same token, the construction companies that have carried out the work on the Guardia di Finanza Inspectors' School are almost all from the Abruzzo region.
