Go Green with Vince Perez

On a cold and rainy morning of June 4  in St. Petersburg, Russia, I attended a plenary session of the St Petersburg International Economic Forum as part of the Philippine delegation.  The plenary was opened by a rather long keynote speech by Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, and was followed by a panel discussion moderated by CNBC Anchor Maria Bartiromo between Philippine President Gloria Arroyo, former Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, former German chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, and Nobel prize economist Robert Mandell.

Mandell started the panel discussion by predicting that the US economy would finally ‘hit bottom” by the end of the 2^nd quarter or sometime in the 3^rd quarter of 2009. Koizumi was passionate in calling on the US and Russia to reduce their nuclear arsenal and divert defense spending instead towards economic stimulus spending. Due to Japan’s over-dependence on imported energy, he reiterated their investment on energy efficiency and fuel-efficient cars.  Schroeder offered that the business of sustainability will become an attractive industry in the future, with Germany becoming the wind power leader in Europe. President Arroyo highlighted the passage of the Biofuels Law and the Renewable Energy Act as key pillars of the Philippine drive towards energy independence.

At the risk of being biased, I personally thought President Arroyo performed quite well.   While she was narrating the fiscal reforms undertaken by her administration, three Russian businessmen seated in front of me applauded her in the middle of her intervention.  After the discussion, Robert Mandell congratulated President Arroyo.  Later than evening, we bumped into Maria Bartiromo who said she was impressed by President Arroyo.