The G20 is still of special importance to global financial stability, as subtle changes in one country's macroeconomic policy will have "spoiler effects" on the rest of the world, an inevitable result of the globalization and increasingly close economic ties between countries.
The United States Federal Reserve's intention to quit quantitative easing, for one, has led to an exodus of capital from the emerging markets, causing a wave of turbulence in the global financial system. Three months ago the People's Bank of China unexpectedly pushed forward its interest rate marketization by announcing that the daily fixing would reference the previous day's market closing rate, as well as the daily foreign exchange demand and supply, which also had short-term effects on some of its neighbors.
As the world's second-largest economy and largest trading nation, China has given much attention to the economic signals it released prior to the summit, which came just two weeks after the Fifth Plenum of the 18th Communist Party of China Central Committee released the 13th Five-Year Plan (2016-20).
The government will continue to adhere to opening-up and reform to achieve win-win cooperation with more countries. True, a number of foreign enterprises are transferring their business in China to some neighboring Southeast Asian nations, but this is just an ordinary commercial adjustment in response to the rising cost of labor in China.
But more specifically, the Chinese government is expected to seek full implementation of a "negative list" for foreign investment and preferential trade and financial policies, in the hope of creating a more transparent and fairer investment environment. This will not only attract more foreign enterprises to increase their investments in China, but also allow them to benefit from the country's foreseeable economic growth.
Global infrastructure is in need of over a trillion US dollars of investment, and this is likely to be another topic discussed by the G20 leaders. China can share its experiences in this area, as it has acquired expertise in infrastructure building over the last four decades. The Silk Road Economic Belt and 21st Century Maritime Silk Road, the BRICs Development Bank and the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank will provide abundant public goods to the world should China and the other G20 members manage to forge the cooperation that makes the best use of its capacity, the advanced technologies of the West and emerging markets.
The Summit will conclude with a presentation given by Chinese President Xi Jinping, who will assume the G20 presidency next year.
The author is a research fellow at the Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies at Renmin University of China.
I’ve lived in China for quite a considerable time including my graduate school years, travelled and worked in a few cities and still choose my destination taking into consideration the density of smog or PM2.5 particulate matter in the region.