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St Andrews staging G20 conference
FINANCE ministers and bank governors from the world's wealthiest countries are due to meet in St Andrews next month.
Representatives of the G20 will gather in the town on November 6-7 to hold a number of meetings dealing with the effects of the global financial crisis.
The group met in the United States last month and agreed to introduce tough new banking regulations to prevent further economic problems.
At the end of the Pittsburgh summit, it was announced a further meeting of the G20, which normally only meets once each year, will go ahead in St Andrews next month.
Security is sure to be tight in the town during the summit and details of the venues that will be used, and who will attend the meetings, have not yet been released.
Critics of the G20 have already organised events throughout the town to run parallel to the official summit.
A 'counter conference' has already been organised by Put People First, a coalition of charities, trade unions, faith groups and environmentalists.
A spokesman for the group said: "We felt we had to organise some events for St Andrews.
"The finance ministers have a huge amount of power and their decisions will have a massive impact on how the entire world spends money.
"There has to be a radical overhaul if we are going to have a sustainable economy.
"We want people to come to St Andrews and show world leaders that ordinary people have positive alternatives."
The group says its 'counter conference' is an opportunity for alternative policies to be discussed by academics, activists and campaigners.
It is due to be held in the St Andrews Student Union on November 7.
University Rector Kevin Dunion will introduce a number of speakers at the event, including Professor Jan Bebbington, vice-chair of the Sustainable Development Commission and chair of Accounting and Sustainable Development at St Andrews University.
She said: "The G20 has many of the levers of power and its current policies are very unfair and are destroying the planet.
"But people have power too and it will be very interesting to see what comes out of their meeting."
Put People First has stressed it wants to promote debate and says it is not interested in disrupting the official G20 meeting in any way.
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Weather for Kirkcaldy
Thursday 24 May 2012
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