Former President Rawlings and his wife Nana Konadu Agyeman-Rawlings left Accra Monday for Istanbul, Turkey to participate in the Global Economic Symposium, which opens today.

The Global Economic Symposium (GES) assembles some of the world’s prominent experts from politics, business, academia, and civil society to address important global problems.

President Rawlings has been invited to join the GES and participate in the Working Group as well as the panel on “Building Markets and States”.

This unique working group on state building charges six important world leaders from diverse backgrounds and geographic areas to address in depth the special challenges of economic and political development in fragile states. Their task is not only to generate visions and solutions, but also to take the next steps towards achieving concrete results.

The working group will meet several times in private sessions during the two days of the symposium and present its conclusions in an open GES panel discussion. The goal of the working group is twofold: To develop a new perspective on how the international community might assist struggling countries and to propose practical projects that can be implemented by the committee in conjunction with the GES team and network to meet the needs of these countries.

Former President Rawlings is expected to deliver a paper titled: “Localise Democracy to Strengthen Moral Fibre for Development”.

Vice-Chairman of the National Democratic Congress and former First Lady, Nana Konadu Agyeman-Rawlings will also be participating in the symposium. She will be addressing the topic, “Women as a Foundation for Rural Development”.

The policy group on the subject will discuss how to empower women financially, how to eliminate illiteracy among women, and how to facilitate knowledge transfers to women.

A large number of leading decision makers from the world of politics, business and economics - the Nobel Laureate James Heckman, Hans-Paul Bürkner (CEO of the Boston Consulting Group), Jacob Frenkel (Chairman of J.P.Morgan Chase International), Baba Kalyani (CEO of Bharat Forge), the European Commissioner for Trade Karel de Gucht, the Turkish Finance Minister Mehmet ?im?ek, the Central Bank Governor Durmu? Y?lmaz, Aart de Geus (Deputy Secretary-General of the OECD), James P. Leape (Director General of the WWF), William Lacy Swing (Director General of the International Organization for Migration) and many more have confirmed their attendance so far. José Manuel Barroso (President of the European Commission) is Patron of the GES.

Unlike other important meetings the GES is strongly action-oriented (seeking policy proposals and business strategies to meet global challenges) and research-based (available through the virtual platform of the GES, which will contain virtual libraries, a repository of proposed solutions and discussion forums).

The results of the GES will be published in a document entitled Global Economic Solutions, which will be presented and submitted to several major international organizations (including the IMF, the OECD, the World Bank and the UN). Its 2009 version has been published in Spring 2010.

Visit Nana Konadu Agyeman Rawlings’ blog site - http://nkrawlings.wordpress.com