Leaders Define Goals in ‘Summit About the Future’

Leaders of the Group of 8 industrial nations agreed Sunday on a framework for addressing key challenges of the next century--from sustaining economic growth within a healthy environment to wrestling with the infamous “year 2000” computer bug.

“This was a summit about the future,” declared the meeting’s host, British Prime Minister Tony Blair.

Although the participants also dealt with fast-unfolding crises in South Asia and Indonesia, Blair reportedly kept much of the formal discussions focused on the 21st century.

In their final communique, leaders from the eight nations--the U.S., Britain, France, Germany, Russia, Japan, Italy and Canada--said they believe that prospects for global economic growth remain good despite what they called the “temporary setback” of the Asian financial crisis. But they noted that the Asian meltdown carried important lessons, including the need for greater openness in central and commercial bank dealings, for corruption-free government practices and for growth built on sound policies that enjoy public confidence.

Looking toward Africa, the leaders pledged themselves to a “real and effective partnership” with developing countries, to encourage reform and development and, through a series of initiatives, to help those nations integrate into the world economy.

The initiatives include provisions to ease debt loads, boost development aid from Western nations and remove many of the restrictive conditions that donor countries have tended to link to international assistance.

“For the first time, we see not only the specifics of how we’re going to deal with particular problems like debt relief or trade, but the idea of a comprehensive strategy for post-conflict societies,” said U.S. Deputy National Security Advisor James Steinberg.

Before finishing their final meeting Sunday, the eight leaders also promised to deploy the resources of their national industries and global organizations such as the World Bank to work on ways to resolve the so-called year 2000 problem--a technical bug that makes computers confuse the year 2000 with 1900.

“We agree to take further urgent action and to share information . . . that will assist in preventing disruption in the near and longer term,” the leaders said.

In many ways, the 26-point final communique underscores three important shifts of thinking among the world’s largest and richest countries:

* That they can sustain their way of life only if they enable the developing world to share in future growth.

* That globalization--a shorthand word denoting the trend toward a shared destiny for all humankind--is a fast-emerging reality.

* That environmental preservation has become a vital ingredient for any blueprint for economic growth.

“In a world of increasing globalization, we are ever more interdependent,” the leaders declared. “Our challenge is to build on and sustain the process of globalization and to ensure that its benefits are spread more widely to improve the quality of life of people everywhere.”

Finally, the leaders agreed to meet again next year in Cologne, Germany, from June 18 to 20.

Times staff writer Carol J. Williams contributed to this report.