Statement by Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill following the G-7 Meeting in Rome

I enjoyed visiting with my G-7 colleagues here today. I find these gatherings particularly useful when we can have informal discussions among ourselves, together as a group or one on one in bilateral meetings. These kinds of frank discussions allow all of us to reach a deeper understanding of common ground and better prepare our principals for the Heads of State meeting in Genoa later this month. Going forward, we will work to strengthen the G-7 process and its value for our Heads of State and Government by making our goals as clear and measurable as possible and by taking a direct role in monitoring progress toward their achievement.

We all agreed that growth in each of our economies is crucial to prosperity around the world. I reiterated my belief that we in the United States have taken strong measures in both fiscal and monetary policy to return our economy to a higher growth path. And I continue to believe that the prospects for long-term global prosperity are better now than at any time in our history.

We were joined today by the heads of the multilateral development banks for a thorough and forthright exchange. We all agree that these institutions are crucial to world development and that education projects should be a larger part of MDB portfolios. I emphasized the importance of using rigorous performance measures to assist the MDBs in focusing their resources on projects that increase productivity and per capita income in developing nations.

I am very pleased that we have established a consensus on redirecting the OECD harmful tax practices project to focus exclusively on information exchange and treat non-member countries and member countries in the same timeline.