A special summit of business leaders from the G20 countries will be held in London on Wednesday 18 March, hosted by the British Government's Business and Enterprise Department jointly with the CBI, the UK's largest business organisation. Chaired by Lord Peter Mandelson, the Business Secretary, the meeting will be held in 10 Downing Street and addressed by Gordon Brown. The aim is to provide a 'voice for business' that can feed ideas into the London Summit through the British Prime Minister who will be chairing it.

Ahead of the Summit of Business Leaders, the CBI has been urging the London Summit to focus its efforts on rebuilding the fractured financial system and protecting open markets. Writing in The Times of London last week, CBI Director General Richard Lambert said business people around the world were looking to the London Summit with a real sense of urgency. 'Leaders representing countries with 85 per cent of global output will be sitting round the table. Rather than coming up with a series of general platitudes covering a wide range of issues, it is vital that they focus instead on a small number of action points, all concentrated on one overriding objective: the need to put a brake on what the IMF has called the 'pernicious feedback loop' between the real economy and financial markets.

Also writing in The Times of London, Lord Mandelson said this week that the single most important message the business chiefs could send to the G20 political leaders was the importance of avoiding a retreat into protectionism. Erecting defensive trade barriers would be to repeat the mistake of the 1930s, he added, when protectionism drove the world economy further into recession. The Business Secretary wrote: 'Representing 90 per cent of all global trade, the G20 should renew their Washington pledge of last November not to erect any new barriers to trade or investment.'

The Business Summit will be chaired by CBI President Martin Broughton, who is also Chairman of British Airways. Other UK Government Ministers present will include John Denham, Innovation and Skills Secretary, Lord Malloch-Brown, Foreign Office Minister, Baroness Shriti Vadera, Economic Competitiveness and Small Business Minister, Lord Mervyn Davies, Trade and Investment Minister, Gareth Thomas, Trade and Development Minister, and Ian Pearson, Economics and Business Minister.

The business leaders present will be:

• Dr Juan Carlos Lascurain, President of UIA and Executive Director of M Royo, representing Argentina
• Heather Ridout, Chief Executive of the Australian Industry Group and Director of Australian Super & Electrolux Household Products
• Carlos Mariani Bittencourt, board member of Brazil’s CNI
• Paul Desmarais Jr, Vice Chairman of the Canadian Council of Chief Executives and Chairman & Co-CEO, Power Corporation
• Yu Ping, Vice Chairman of the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade
• Dr Eleni Gabre-Madhin, CEO of Ethiopia Commodities Exchange
• Ernest-Antoine Seillière, President of Business Europe, and Chairman, Supervisory Board of Wendel
• Laurence Parisot, President of France’s MEDEF
• Dr. Hubertus Erlen, Chairman, International Board of Germany’s BDI and Supervisory Board, Bayer-Schering Pharma
• Jamshyd Godrej, Confederation of Indian Industry and Chairman of Godrej & Boyce Mftg
• John A Prasetio, Deputy Chairman of the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce (KADIN) and Chairman, CBA Asia
• Emma Marcegaglia, President of Italy’s Confindustria and CEO, Marcegaglia Group
• Keikichi Honda of Japan’s Nippon Keidanren, and Chairman, EFI K.K
• S R Cho, Chairman of the Federation of Korean Industries and Chairman of Hyosung Corporation
• Claudio X Gonzalez, Chairman of the Mexican Council of Businessmen and Chairman, Kimberly-Clark de Mexico
• Bernard Wientjes, President of Netherland’s VNO-NCW
• Alexander Shokhin, President of Russia’s RSPP and Board Member of Lukoil, TNK-BP & Renaissance Capital
• Brian Molefe, President of South Africa’s BUSA and CEO, Public Investment Corporation
• Jose Luis Feito, Board Member of Spain’s CEOE and President of ASETA
• Ms Arzuhan Dogan Yalcindag, President of Turkey’s TUSIAD and President of Dogan TV
• Donald J Shepard, Chairman of the Board of the US Chamber of Commerce and Chairman of Aegon US