The initiative, conceived of by two prestigious international research institutes - The Institute for International Economics, Washington, and the Tokyo Foundation - involved setting up an international Working Group composed of highest level scholars and experts of various extraction from all G-8 countries with the task of formulating selected proposals for the G-8 summit held at Genoa in July. Among the participants: Henry Kissinger, Renato Ruggiero, Paul Volcker.

The research project - in partnership with the HWWA-Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung, Hamburg - focused on the new global regionalism and analyzed the emerging problems of global governance internationally and the mechanisms needed to promote regulatory systems and cooperation schemes. It analyzed the liberalization and interna­tionalization trends in the services sector overall and in telecommunications in particular to assess the implications for global systems and the issues of "global governance" in terms of sectorial evolution and rela­tions among the leading areas and countries.

This project has been organised in the framework of the “Genoa Non Governmental Initiative” (GNG) promoted by the Italian Prime Minister’s Office and the Italian Foreign Ministry in preparation for the Genoa summit. By consulting the non governmental organisations in G-8 countries, it planned to provide a set of recommendations on topics pertaining to the G-8 agenda.