Big events shaping industry
06 April 2009
Apex has been the major event we’ve all had our eye on recently, but what else is happening?
The recent G20 Financial Summit in London has been hailed by American President Barack Obama as an historic turning point in the pursuit of world economic recovery.
The outcome is that world leaders have pledged a total of $1.1 trillion (£681 billion) in funding to tackle the crisis, including $750 billion to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), $250 billion to boost global trade, and $100 billion for international development banks to lend to the poorest countries. “This was the day the world came together to fight back against global recession,” said Prime Minister Gordon Brown.
Dominique Strauss-Kahn, Managing Director of the IMF said: “The global crisis is hitting emerging market and poor countries hard. The G20 leaders have sent a powerful signal that the international community is committed to support these countries, including by ensuring that the IMF has the resources available.” He added: “The IMF has a unique capacity to analyse the relationships between financial markets and the real economy, with a global perspective given its membership. Our global and country monitoring procedures are being sharpened, including with a new mechanism for early warnings.”
But it’s also an issue of relations, not solely money. Last Wednesday, Obama met President Hu Jintao of China on the sidelines of the G20 to exchange views on US-China relations and global issues of common interest.
The two sides have agreed to work together to build a positive, co-operative, and comprehensive US-China relationship for the 21st century and to maintain and strengthen exchanges at all levels.
Together, they have established the US-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue. US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Chinese State Councillor Dai Bingguo will chair the Strategic Track and US Secretary of the Treasury Timothy Geithner and Chinese Vice Premier Wang Qishan will chair the Economic Track of the Dialogue, each as special representatives of their presidents. The two sides will hold the first round of the dialogue in Washington DC this summer and have stated that they will continue to advance mutually beneficial co-operation in economics and trade through the mechanism of the high-level Joint Commission on Commerce and Trade. In addition, an agreement has been made to further deepen mutually beneficial co-operation in a range of areas, including economy and trade, science and technology, education, culture, and health.
Furthermore, the two presidents discussed challenges facing the global economy and financial system. They pledged that, as two major economies, the US and China will work together, as well as with other countries, to help the world economy return to strong growth and to strengthen the international financial system.
President Obama underlined the commitment of the United States to implement the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act and the Financial Stability Plan. He emphasised that when recovery is firmly established, the US will act to cut their fiscal deficit in half and bring the deficit down to a sustainable level. President Hu emphasised China’s commitment to strengthen and improve macroeconomic control and expand domestic demand, particularly consumer demand, to ensure sustainable growth, and ensure steady and relatively fast economic development.
So what does all this mean for our industry?
Last month, in “There is no crisis”, I stated that as long as there is money to help EMS customers and their OEM customers with R&D, confidence should improve.
But whilst the situation is already looking more positive for the electronics outsourcing industry, is this the case across the board?
Last week, IDTechEx stated that they expect record attendance at Printed Electronics Europe; This Week’s Big Event in our newsletter. Pre-registered attendance figures for the conference that starts today in Dresden, Germany, was apparently already 20% higher than at the same time before the event last year. According to the organisers, over 700 attendees from 32 countries had registered by last week, so it seems that confidence in thin film electronics is strong.
As well as the newsworthy world events, the diary section of this website lists a plethora of conferences, exhibitions, workshops, seminars, and webinars across the world. Take a look here. We believe that this is the largest and most comprehensive listing of events for the electronics manufacturing industry.
What are your thoughts on the G20 results? Or do you know of an event that is absent from our listing? Send an email to let me know.
This week’s leader was written by Paul Wolfe, EMTww’s Assistant Editor
Contact Details and Archive...