Financial Transparency Coalition

Statement by Mr. Håkon Golbrandsen, the Norwegian State Secretary for International Development, at the United Nations Conference on the World Financial and Economic Crisis and Its Impact on Development in New York.

The United Nations' three-day Head-of-State Summit on the global financial crisis had promise. The goal was to convene a summit of world leaders at U.N. Headquarters in New York to assess the worst global economic downturn since the Great Depression. Over 100 million people per year, the summiteers noted, will fall into extreme poverty.

Officials from 126 countries are meeting at the United Nations headquarters in New York for a three-day conference on reforming the global financial system.