LONDON, Oct 22: Commonwealth heads of governments and finance ministers gathered here today made a call for boosting up the economic profile of the organisation, and declared that the forthcoming Edinburgh summit should set out a bold new agenda on trade and investments.The heads of governments and finance ministers assembled here for the first-ever Commonwealth Business Forum meeting asked the Forum to chalk out ``concrete measures'' to boost up the volume of trade and investments among inter-member states.The two-day forum meeting jointly organised by Commonwealth secretariat, the British government and the Financial Times is being attended by a number of presidents and prime ministers, including President Yoweri Museveni of Uganda, Chandrika Bandarnaike of Sri Lanka, Prime Minister Jean Chretien of Canada, John Howard of Australia and Indian Finance Minister P Chidambaram.In his inaugural address, British Prime Minister Tony Blair said Edinburgh should mark the historic turning point of the organisation by making it more vibrant and giving it a bigger economic role and profile.Blair urged the member states of Commonwealth to drop trade restrictions and allow ``free trade''. He said the forthcoming Edinburgh summit should commit itself to working together in the World Trade Organisation (WTO) for further liberalisation of world trade including removal of non-tariff barriers. The British prime minister said as part of `shift of emphasis', the Edinburgh declaration should be an ``economic declaration'' to match the Harare declaration on democratic rights six years ago. The democratic and economic rights should form the twin pillars of a new Commonwealth, Blair asserted.Tony Blair said the Commonwealth Development Corporation (CDC), which was a public institution, should be improved to become a public and private partnership enabling it to attract a greater private investment.The world leaders also called for formulating new measures within the Commonwealth in combating worldwide scourges like money laundering, drug trafficking, tax evasions and other criminal activities. The leaders also called for combining the new business expertise of South East Asia with resourcefulness of Africa on the basis of partnership between governments and private sectors.Commonwealth secretary general Emeka Anyaoku stressed on the need for preparing many of the African and Asian countries for adjustments required in the post-Uruguay round trade environment. He seconded the proposal mooted by Tony Blair for setting up a `mechanism' under the Commonwealth to help smaller countries meet challenges of major trade negotiations.
