Harold McGraw III Says Global Growth Depends on Closer Government-Business Cooperation in Three Key Areas

NEW YORK, June 5, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Harold McGraw III, Chairman, President and CEO of The McGraw-Hill Companies (NYSE: MHP) today called for G20 leaders to focus on pro-growth policies when they meet in Los Cabos, Mexico later this month.

"We need to get the world's growth engines moving again to bring back hope, opportunity, and most importantly—to create jobs," McGraw said. "There's simply no solution to global growth if government and business don't work together, especially in three critical areas: developing deeper and more liquid capital markets, lowering barriers to trade and protecting strong intellectual property rights."

He made the remarks in Washington, D.C., during a conference to preview the G20 Summit and sponsored by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) and United States Council for International Business. At today's event, Mr. McGraw introduced Arturo Sarukhan, Mexico's Ambassador to the U.S., and participated in a discussion on the G20 agenda with Michael Froman, White House Deputy National Security Advisor for International Economic Affairs.

"Countries create enormous economic opportunities when they enhance capital markets, liberalize trade policies and respect intellectual property," said Mr. McGraw, who is vice chairman of ICC and chairman of the U.S. Council for International Business, ICC's U.S. affiliate. "With the global economy facing headwinds, we should focus on policies that will accelerate growth and create jobs."

"Global business needs to work more closely with policymakers to use trade and investment more effectively to boost global economic recovery," said ICC Secretary General Jean-Guy Carrier. "At a time when governments are struggling with excessive debt, multilateral trade liberalization would create jobs and drive economic growth. Progress on reaching agreement on elements of the Doha Agenda should be pursued through alternative negotiating approaches.  These approaches should be pragmatic, results-oriented, consensus-based, transparent, as inclusive as possible and lead to multilateral outcomes that promote economic growth and development."

Mr. McGraw said that policy makers are meeting at a crucial time to discuss ways to fund growth and development as bank loan and debt capital markets need to finance an estimated $43 trillion to $46 trillion of corporate borrowing between now and the end of 2016. One study has estimated that Asia needs to spend $8 trillion by 2020 to meet the region's basic infrastructure needs, including water, transportation and energy projects. Coping with this huge demand for credit will be a challenge for the stretched banking system and capital markets. For this reason, policy makers should make progress on developing deeper and more liquid local bond markets, Mr. McGraw said. With imagination and effort, leaders can unlock the potential of capital markets to fund infrastructure and other investments that will underpin the future growth of all economies, he said.

Mr. McGraw also said countries should be pursuing more regional and bilateral trade agreements since the multilateral deal known as the Doha Round of global trade talks remains elusive. With 80 percent of the world's economic growth coming from outside the U.S. over the next five years, he cited the need to move forward with deals like the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a trade agreement with nine nations, including Australia, Singapore and the U.S. If completed, it would make the group America's fourth-largest trading partner.

An issue of great concern to service companies is the piracy of their intellectual property. More than one-third of U.S. GDP, about $5 trillion, comes from IP-intensive industries which employ 27 million Americans. To produce innovation, job growth and economic expansion, companies must have worldwide protection of the intellectual property they create, Mr. McGraw said. Guarding against piracy requires new trade agreements to include IP provisions and countries to enforce existing laws.

Mr. McGraw will attend the Business 20 (B20) Summit in Mexico, a meeting of CEOs held in advance of the G20 and designed to offer recommendations from the international business community to world leaders.

ICC is committed to deepening the G20/B20 dialogue and interaction between governments and global business. ICC has developed the ICC G20 Business Scorecard to generate a balanced and reliable measurement of the G20's response to business recommendations that have been put forward to government leaders. 

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