G20 Hangzhou Summit to help find new path for world economic growth

The 2016 G20 Summit will be held in Hangzhou in September under the theme of "Toward an Innovative, Invigorated, Interconnected, and Inclusive World Economy". An integral part of the theme is inclusive and interconnected development.

China holds the Presidency of the G20 this year and under its initiative, for the first time, the G20 is highlighting development issues in the framework of global macro-policy and working on a systematic plan of action for the implementation of the United Nation's 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. China is doing this for a number of important reasons.

Promoting G20 cooperation is needed to implement the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, which commenced this year. Adopted at the UN Sustainable Development Summit last September, the Agenda is a future-oriented blueprint and a powerful written commitment. But setting the goals is only the first step. It must be followed through with the hard work and cooperation of all countries. The G20 is a major platform for international economic cooperation, and the international community expects it to play a leading role in this respect.

Development cooperation

Promoting G20 development cooperation is crucial for tapping new potential for world economic growth. As global economic growth, trade and investment remain sluggish, and the macro-policies of major economies diverge, new inequalities and imbalances in development may emerge. There is tremendous potential for the development of developing countries, which is like a blue sea yet to be navigated. Tapping this potential could unleash immeasurable power for growth and promote a global economic recovery.

Promoting development cooperation is China's unique contribution to the G20. China, the world's largest developing country, has been on a unique journey of development and maintains close connections with other developing countries. As it holds the G20 Presidency in 2016, China is playing the leading role in pushing the G20 to fully implement the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, find a new path for world economic growth, and make its due contribution to the international cause of development.

Inclusive and interconnected development deals directly with development issues, facilitates coordinated progress among various economies, promotes interconnected and win-win development of all industries and enables people in all social strata to share in prosperity. It will be a major highlight of the summit.

This year, the G20 will formulate an action plan for implementing the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. As a concrete step to contribute to the work led by the UN in this regard, collective and national actions will be taken to push for implementation among the G20 members and to support other developing countries in their implementation efforts.

This year, the G20 will advance cooperation initiatives on supporting industrialization in African countries and the Least Developed Countries to help speed up industrialization in these countries and attain the poverty reduction and sustainable development goals.

The G20 will also place high importance on climate change this year. It has already released its first ever Presidency Statement on Climate Change, committing members to sign the Paris Agreement, which opened for signature on April 22 and remains open for signature one year thereafter, and bringing it into force as soon as possible. The UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon responded with a special statement, in which he welcomed the responsible position of the G20 and extended his thanks to China for its leadership.

In addition, the G20 will discuss agriculture, employment, inclusive business and other wide-ranging issues; shed light on issues related to women, youth, and small farmers; promote agricultural innovation and sustainable development; explore the relationship between macro-policy regulation and job creation; and encourage employment through entrepreneurship and innovation.

It should be made clear that the G20 stresses a broader concept of development. While making feasible action plans to tackle development issues based on member's own comparative advantages and added value, it also calls for an economic perspective and explores the relationship between growth and development in multiple dimensions. The Hangzhou Summit will not only focus on development itself, but also embrace development as a source of economic growth, and this is a main thread running through the G20 agenda.

A development perspective is taken in all the key agenda items of the G20 this year, including macro-economic policy, international trade and investment, innovation in growth models and global economic governance.

Under the agenda item of "breaking a new path for growth", the G20 will focus discussions on innovation, the new industrial revolution, the digital economy and structural reform. This aims to break the current model of sole reliance on fiscal stimulus and easy monetary policy through innovation-driven growth strategies and structural reform, and boost the potential for mid- to long-term growth.

China is working with fellow members to draw a blueprint for innovation-driven growth that highlights the concept of inclusive innovation, does more to help developing countries raise their R&D capacity, narrows the gap and bridges the digital divide between developed and developing countries in terms of industrialization, and lowers the threshold for developing countries to integrate into the new economy and helps them share the benefits.

Global governance

Under the agenda item of "more effective and efficient global economic and financial governance", the G20 aims to advance reform in global economic governance and increase the representation and voice of developing countries and emerging markets.

This year, China has relaunched the G20 International Financial Architecture Working Group to promote reforms of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, and have in-depth discussions on such issues as sovereign debt restructuring and a global financial safety net.

We are working to promote financial inclusion and to bring its benefits to developing countries and vulnerable groups. We are also working to enhance governance and cooperation in the energy and anti-corruption fields, formulate action plans on energy efficiency and renewable energy, and draw up the G20 High-Level Principles on Corrupt Fugitives and Related Assets Recovery, in order to foster a law-based, norm-abiding and sound international development environment.

Under the agenda item of "robust international trade and investment" and based on the outcomes of the World Trade Organization ministerial conference in Nairobi last year, the G20 will reaffirm its commitment to the multilateral trading system, work out a global trade growth strategy to promote financing for trade and lower trade costs, and strengthen the capacity building of developing countries for their participation in the global value chain. The G20 will push for setting guiding principles on global investment policies, which will fill the blank in international investment governance. It will also raise initiatives for promoting the investment environment in investment in low-income countries to attract investment.

It is worth noting that China has worked hard not only on agenda setting, but also on increasing the representation of developing countries at the G20 by inviting more developing countries than ever before to attend the G20 meetings this year, and conducting a series of outreach dialogues.

In April this year, as China's G20 Sherpa, I attended the United Nations General Assembly High-Level Thematic Debate on Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals, and held dialogues with the G77, Least Developed Countries, Small Island Developing States and Landlocked Developing Countries, the Global Governance Group, the Commonwealth and La Francophonie.

President of the UN General Assembly Mogens Lykketoft attached great importance to the preparatory work of the G20 Hangzhou Summit, and invited me to the president's working breakfast meeting, where I had a broad exchange of views with representatives of other countries, developing countries in particular, on the progress of preparation for the G20 summit and implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

China has also strengthened the two-way communication between G20 members and non-G20 members on such forums as the Boao Forum for Asia, the African Union and UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific, so that the G20 discussion will be more comprehensive and balanced, contributing to broader international cooperation on development.

During my conversations with all the parties, developing countries in particular, I gained a strong impression that the G20 is not about a group of 20 countries. It bears on the interests of the vast number of developing countries, and indeed all the countries in the world. The G20 has a broad agenda, which covers issues of interest to all parties. The outcomes of the G20 meetings are important, and concern the vital interests of all parties. The G20 shoulders major responsibilities, and has a lofty mission to revive the world economy. Therefore, the G20 Hangzhou Summit will be an open process for the whole world, making it a summit which pools together the wisdom and strengths of everyone. Developing countries, in this process, will always occupy a prominent position and carry a unique weight.

We believe that the importance the G20 places on the issue of development will enable this year's Hangzhou Summit to produce a unique consensus, send a stronger message and have a more profound impact. Let us all look forward to the coming September when the G20 leaders will hold strategic discussions, push forward the implementation of the international consensus on development, and inject new vitality into the world's economic growth.

The author is China's vice-foreign minister and Chinese Sherpa for G20 Affairs.