Brazilian President, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, has spoken of the economic growth and stability enjoyed by his country over the past six years, and of the need to put human beings at the centre of  a new economic and social order.

In an article in the Financial Times, President Lula recalls his long political history before becoming President of one of the world's largest emerging economies - and of the problems he said he inherited. When he assumed office in 2003, orthodox thinking said the only policy choice was between 'the unforgiving imperatives of the globalised economy' or global isolation.

'Over the past six years, we have destroyed those myths. We have grown and enjoyed economic stability. Our growth has been accompanied by the inclusion of tens of millions of Brazilian people in the consumer market. We have distributed wealth to more than 40m who lived below the poverty line. We have ensured that the national minimum wage has risen always above the rate of inflation. We have democratised access to credit. We have created more than 10m jobs. We have pushed forward with land reform. The expansion of our domestic market has not happened at the expense of exports – they have tripled in six years. We have attracted enormous volumes of foreign investment with no loss of sovereignty.'

President Lula, who will be attending the London Summit in April, set out his vision of the sort of society he hoped would emerge from the global economic crisis: 'It will reward production and not speculation. The function of the financial sector will be to stimulate productive activity – and it will be the object of rigorous controls, both national and international, by means of serious and representative organisations.

'International trade will be free of the protectionism that shows dangerous signs of intensifying. The reformed multilateral organisations will operate programmes to support poor and emerging economies with the aim of reducing the imbalances that scar the world today. There will be a new and democratic system of global governance. New energy policies, reform of systems of production and of patterns of consumption will ensure the survival of a planet threatened today by global warming.'

Above all, the Brazilian President concluded, he hoped for a world free of the economic dogmas that had invaded the thinking of many and were presented as absolute truths. Applied in advance – as they had been in Brazil – they could be the guarantors of a more just and democratic society.

'I am not worried about the name to be given to the economic and social order that will come after the crisis, so long as its central concern is with human beings.'