World Bank chief says G7 no longer effective

The Group of Seven rich nations is no longer effective and should be replaced by a steering group that includes emerging economic...

The Group of Seven rich nations is no longer effective and should be replaced by a steering group that includes emerging economic powers like China, India and Brazil, World Bank President Robert Zoellick said on Monday.

In a speech ahead of meetings of G7 finance leaders in Washington this weekend, Zoellick said the global financial crisis was a wake-up call that required broader cooperation across more countries.

The G7 is not working, Zoellick said, referring to the group of rich countries including the United States, Canada, Britain, Germany, France, Italy and Japan. We need a better group for a different time.

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The new multilateralism, suiting our times, will need to be a flexible network, not a fixed nor unitary system, Zoellick said. It needs to maximize the strengths of interconnecting and overlapping actors and institutions, public and private, he said.

He said the steering group should include finance ministers from China, India, Brazil, South Africa, Saudi Arabia and Russia. It should not, however, be limited to any set number of countries but should be flexible and evolve with the times.