Originally published 22 January 2002

James Plaskitt MP for Warwick and Leamington will this weekend tell a summit of UK Economics students at the University of Warwick that:

"Rather than driving states apart, the aftermath of September 11th has driven them together. Russia and the West have found new strategic common ground, and many observers point to a dramatic shift in the US approach. According to TIME magazine on the 15th October, "an Administration that just a month or two ago believed in going it alone, has thrown open its arms to embrace the pleasures of multilateralism."

However he will also warn that:

"The risks to the global economy today can be summed up in one word: complacency. Complacency about the wellbeing of the poorest nations; complacency about cultural sensibilities; complacency about the environment; complacency about regional isolationism."

The Warwick Undergraduate Economics Summit organised by the Economics Society and is supported by the University of Warwick Economics Department runs over the weekend January 25th to 27th this year. It is sponsored from Goldman Sachs and BDO Stoy Hayward.

The Summit is the first inter-university student Economics event in the UK and it will be attended by 200 of the top Economics students from Oxford, Cambridge, Warwick, LSE, Nottingham, Durham and Manchester. It will feature lectures, debates and student led seminars, and the results will be published and sent to all the participants. The theme of the summit is "No longer inevitable? The future of the World Economy after September 11th."

The Summit speakers will include:

• Augusto Lopez-Claros, IMF representative to Moscow 1992-95
• David Walton, Chief European Economist for Goldman Sachs
• Professor Marcus Miller, Centre for the Study of Globalisation and Regionalisation, University of Warwick
• James Plaskitt MP for Leamington and Warwick, HM Treasury Select Committee
• Professor Andrew Oswald, University of Warwick Economics Department
• Professor Somnath Sen, Birmingham University
  

For further information contact the Warwick students organising the conference:

Benjamin Klooss: 0779 6691700
Ross Davidson: 0775 1202080
or Henrik Johnsson: 07790 758002

Note for editors: The full text of James Plaskitt MP's speech is available.