PRESS RELEASE
Tenth Eurasian Forum Opened in Verona To Promote the Belt and Road Perspective
Oct. 19, 2017 (EIRNS)—Opening the Tenth Eurasian Economic Forum in Verona today, forum organizer and Banca Intesa Russia head Antonio Fallico warned that the 2007 global financial crisis is not over, and called on Europe to join the "One Belt, One Road" policy. Over 1,000 companies, 60 speakers and 14 countries are present at the Forum. The Italian government was represented by Undersecretary of State to the Prime Minister’s Office Maria Elena Boschi. Other international personalities include former German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder, just elected chairman of the Russian oil giant Rosneft, and former European Union Commission President Romano Prodi.
"We survived the financial crisis that started in the U.S.A. and continued throughout the world," but the threat "is still lurking," Fallico said. "The world economy needs deep reforms, able to interpret the demand for a fair, inclusive social-economic development, and open to the new eastern Frontiers—and the to current geopolitical role of Greater Eurasia, from Lisbon to Vladivostok and Singapore. It must be connected to a new international governance which should come out of a radical strategic change of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.
"The Eurasian Union has reached an organic agreement with the Chinese One Belt, One Road project; in this scenario, other horizons with countries such as China, India, South Korea, Japan, South-East Asia, the Middle East, and Northern Africa can be opened.... It would be a real pity if the European Union finds itself left out of this context."
In a message to the forum, Russian President Putin said he hoped that
"proposals raised at the Verona Eurasian Forum allow us to discover the unique potential of Eurasian integration, and favor the creation of common economic space from Lisbon to Vladivostok."
Fallico sent a message to the Valdai Forum, which he is member of, which met in Sochi today, calling for "the EU and Eurasia shifting from competition to collaboration."
