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11-2-11 VOA News G20 - Greece Economy Dominates
11-2-11 VOA News G20 - Greece Economy Dominates
"There's a huge amount of problems that can result in the European crises continuing in terms of remittances that are dropping, in terms of trade that's dropping - 60 percent of the banks in the South are European banks, so if they have trouble, that's going to be a problem," said Ruthrauff. Summit host, French President Nicolas Sarkozy, has met with both NGOs [non-governmental organizations] and business leaders ahead of the summit. Among the proposals G20 leaders will discuss is a tax on financial transactions as a way to raise new funds for poorer countries. NGOs like Interaction support it. Business leaders like Standard Chartered Bank head Peter Sands who is part of a spinoff business summit here - do not. "At this juncture we need to be incredibly careful not to go too far and end up doing things that would undermine global growth and job creation, would fuel deleveraging and would in their way create new sources of instability," said Sands. This normally glitzy town is all but deserted for the summit - except for the hordes of journalists, delegates and police. But real estate agent Fabienne Bohbot is among the few Cannes residents out people-watching. Bohbot said things are bad economically. She said she hopes the G20 leaders will work at resolving the problems before they head home on Friday.