European Central Bank (ECB) Former President Jean-Claude Trichet will speak about the lessons to be drawn from the euro debt crisis and the role of economic governance at an international symposium organized by the National Bank of Kuwait (NBK) on Tuesday 10 April, 2012.

Trichet, who served eight years as president of the ECB and who is current Chairman of The Group of Thirty, will offer an analysis of the euro crisis and the global economy. As a proponent of the euro and the European Union, Trichet dealt directly with the sovereign debt crisis now impacting the euro zone. He approved a controversial bond-buying program which permitted the purchase of sovereign debt in Greece, in an effort to cut interest rates to help prevent the euro zone from further trouble. During his work as Governor of the Banque de France, Trichet proposed setting up a European Finance Ministry, as a means of deepening the institutional framework of the European Union.

NBK regularly invites world-recognized authorities on energy, economics and politics to Kuwait as part of its International Symposium series. Past speakers include former US Presidents George HW Bush and Bill Clinton, former Prime Minister of Singapore Lee Kuan Yew, former US Secretaries of State Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice, Mohamed El-Erian, CEO and co-CIO of PIMCO, the world’s largest bond investment house and Dr Daniel Yergin, author Author of the acclaimed work, The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money and Power which won the 1992 Pulitzer Prize.

The audience will include leading business and financial figures from Kuwait and the region, VIP clients of NBK, government officials and members of the press. The event will be VIP invitation-only.