Davos forum opens with focus on financial regulation, economic recovery

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Nicolas Sarkozy, President of France pronounce a speech during the 'Opening Address' of the Annual Meeting 2010 of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, January 27, 2010 at the Congress Centre. [CFP]

The Davos forum opened its first day of discussions on Wednesday with a focus on how to improve the regulation of the financial sector to avoid future crises and whether the global economy could recover sustainably.

While there is wide consensus that the global financial system needs to be better regulated, participants at the meeting differed on what changes should be made.

In a keynote address to the Davos forum, French President Nicolas Sarkozy called for tighter financial regulation, and criticized unrestrained free-market capitalism.

"There are remuneration packages that will no longer be tolerated because they bear no relationship to merit," Sarkozy said.

He described the remuneration packages as "morally indefensible" because companies that "contribute to destroying jobs and wealth also earn a lot of money."

"From the moment we accepted the idea that the market was always right and that no other opposing factors need to be taken into account, globalization skidded out of control," he said.

But not everyone agreed with Sarkozy's point of view on the opening day of the five-day conference.

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