Hernando de Soto talked to the Initiative on the importance of law and the importance of trust. He reminded the group that the United States has succeeded in its own economic and political development, but that we have somehow forgotten just how we did it. He urged that as the Initiative for Global Development and as Americans, it's incumbent upon us to relearn those lessons and to make law and property rights reform a priority, to evangelize, and to engage.

De Soto stressed that the time is right for a more concerted effort in land reform and property rights and that countries will never have stable governments without property rights reform. He also noted that there is a growing realization in the United States and other donor countries that property rights are the answer not only to economic development but also to a number of political problems in the developing world.