The head of the World Bank has called for creation of a larger financial and economic steering group than the Group of Seven richest countries to better the global crisis better.

The G7 consists of the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, France, Germany, Italy and Japan.

“The G7 is not working ... we need a better group for a different time,” World Bank Group president Robert Zoellick said in a speech to the Peterson Institute for International Economics in Washington.

“For financial and economic cooperation, we should consider a new steering group, including Brazil, China, India, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa and the current G7.”

Speaking ahead of the joint annual meetings of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, Zoellick said “new multilateralism” should give equal value to development and to international finance because otherwise the world would remain an unstable place.

But Zoellick said the new steering group, possibly a fixed-number “G14,” should do more than just replace the G7. He also expressed his concern that old world methods would be used to remake the new group.

Zoellick said the new steering group should evolve to fit changing circumstances, including new emerging powers, while serving as a network for frequent interaction.

“We need a Facebook for multilateral economic diplomacy,” he said.

Zoellick warned that “the events of September could be a tipping point for many developing countries.”

“A drop in exports, as well as capital inflow, will trigger a falloff in investments,” he said. “Deceleration of growth and deteriorating financing conditions, combined with monetary tightening, will trigger business failures and possibly banking emergencies. Some countries will slip toward balance of payments crises. As is always the case, the most poor are the most defenseless.”

The former US diplomat, trade negotiator and financial executive said economic multilateralism must be redefined beyond its traditional focus on finance and trade. He said energy, climate change and stabilizing fragile and post-conflict states were economic issues and not just part of the global dialogue on security and the environment.

He also pointed out that the aid system was not working well enough. He said it needed to move much more quickly and effectively to help those who were most vulnerable when crisis hits.

Saying that the World Bank Group also needed reforms, Zoellick announced the creation of a high-level commission led by former Mexican president Ernesto Zedillo to consider modernizing the governance of the World Bank Group.

Turning to multilateral trade talks, Zoellick said the Doha round of negotiations of the World Trade Organization had “hit the rocks” and countries should, therefore, consider trade facilitation as another way of cutting the costs of trade.

“There are opportunities to cut costs of trade far in excess of those imposed by tariffs and other trade barriers,” he said.

Describing world energy markets as “a mess,” Zoellick called for a “global bargain” between energy producers and consumers. Both sides could share plans for expanding supplies, improving efficiency and lessening demand, assisting with energy for the poor, and consider policies related to carbon production and climate change, he said.

He said the World Bank Group was developing an “Energy for the Poor” initiative with a number of donors to help the poorest countries meet energy needs in efficient and sustainable ways. With editing by INQUIRER.net