Europe's problem is our problem

World leaders are meeting in Hainan this week to discuss sustainable development: and what was the hottest topic at one of the most packed sessions? Europe's sovereign debt woes.

"I think Europe and the US are getting a wake-up call," said William Rhodes, a senior advisor at Citi. "Getting these countries back to being competitive is key. And if we don't we are in for a long problem."

The irony was not lost on the 2,000 delegates in attendance at the Boao Forum Forum for Asia yesterday. The annual conference was launched in 2001 to bring together international and Asian political leaders, businessmen and academic schools "to seek cooperation for the common good and development of Asian countries" and here they are talking about Greece.

But how can they not? "The eurozone could auger for what is going to happen elsewhere," said John Chambers, chairman of the sovereign ratings committee at Standard & Poor's.

But he had a prescription for Europe that others by and large echoed: "Europe needs to bring production and consumption back in line."

"The only way out of the debt crisis is growth. We can't have continuous austerity programmes," added Rhodes.

And how do you achieve that? The panellists said the money needs to trickle down to the private sector, to the small and medium-sized enterprises that will really put it to work in the economy.