Expectations for G20 Hangzhou summit: experts

HANGZHOU - With the Hangzhou summit of Group of 20 drawing near, the world is expecting that new ideas from the summit will help improve economic governance and address some key issues.

New ideas Xi will deliver

Chinese President Xi Jinping will preside over more than 10 events during the summit and deliver some speeches, including a keynote one at the Business20 summit, outlining China's ideas on the world economy and global economic governance.

Chen Fengying, a research fellow with the China Institute for Contemporary International Relations, said the summit will enable China to approach world issues with Chinese concepts, wisdom and ideas.

"We need to explain the real situation and trend of the Chinese economy in a bid to boost world confidence," Chen said.

With the theme of "Toward an Innovative, Invigorated, Interconnected and Inclusive World Economy," the summit is expected to boost the world economy and improve global economic governance.

Key topics for discussion

G20 leaders, eight state guests of honor and leaders of seven international organizations will attend the summit.

Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Li Baodong said that discussions will focus on many issues, including strengthened policy coordination, building new paths for growth, effective economic and financial governance, strong world trade and investment, as well as inclusive and interconnected development.

The G20 summit is not only a key multilateral meeting but also important for bilateral diplomacy. On the sidelines of the summit, President Xi will meet leaders from several countries, and leaders of other countries will hold bilateral talks.

Developing countries

Laos, Chad, Senegal, Thailand, Kazakhstan and Egypt are developing countries without G20 membership, but their joining will enable the G20 Hangzhou summit to become one attended by the most number of developing countries in G20 history.

Ruan Zongze, executive deputy president of the China Institute of International Studies, said the G20 is set to address development issues. While developing countries are less represented in some international institutions, the Group of 20, which acts as a major forum for global economic governance, should allow developing countries to have a bigger say.

The Hangzhou summit is expected to initiate several proposals to support underdeveloped countries, including those in Africa.

B20 Summit

More than 800 business leaders around the world will join the Business20 summit on Saturday and Sunday. Multinationals, small and medium-sized enterprises, and heads of states will join the summit.

The B20 summit has six major topics: financing growth, trade and investment, infrastructure, small and medium-sized enterprises, employment and anti-corruption.

B20 policy recommendations will be submitted to the G20 summit. With more than half of the business representatives coming from China, Chinese entrepreneurs will be deeply involved in making international rules, Ruan said.

Anti-corruption network

With China's efforts, anti-corruption will become a major topic at the summit.

Li Chengyan, head of the Center for Anti-Corruption Studies at Peking University, said one of the expected achievements of the summit will be the creation of a three-in-one anti-corruption system: all members' unified agreement on the legal identification of corruption; the building of a coordinated mechanism to pursue fugitives and stolen assets; and the coordinated actions of members in law implementation.

The summit will also implement the UN Convention Against Corruption, according to Li.

Firsts of G20 summits

The G20 Hangzhou summit will have many firsts. For the first time, the summit makes building a new path for growth a major topic, focusing on global growth in the medium to long term; it will create the first multilateral investment framework; and it will make green finance the first time on the G20 agenda.

"The summit will become a new starting point for global economic governance," said Chen.

Experts believe the Hangzhou summit is transforming the G20 from a crisis response mechanism to a long-term governance system.