Daniel Funes de Rioja , Co-Chairman of the B20’s Employment Taskforce： The Chinese G20 can make a huge difference
By Ren Yan from the People’s Daily
“It will be my first visit to Hangzhou and I very much look forward to visiting the city. My last trip to China was in January to Beijing for the B20 kick-off event. I have been very much impressed by the warm hospitality and the great organization of the event. It was a very good start to the Chinese B20.”Said Daniel Funes de Rioja, Co-Chairman of the B20’s Employment Taskforce, President of International Organisation of Employers (IOE), when he was taking interview with the correspondent from People’s Daily.
“We need clear commitments from G20 leaders to make the G20 an engine for reform. I hope that the Hangzhou summit gives strong impetus to comprehensive reform efforts at national level.” Daniel Funes de Rioja said,“This year’s IOE-BIAC G20 monitoring report about the implementation of G20 commitments shows that the majority of employers’ federations in G20 countries are not sure whether the G20 process has resulted in any major policy changes at national level. This is of serious concern. ”
Daniel Funes de Rioja added, “the B20 summit will raise attention to the urgency of proper implementation and will also offer the support of business in addressing the major challenges regarding job creation, growth and development.” He emphasized that they strongly believe in the role of the G20 facing the challenges of the global economy to make a better, more inclusive and developed world. The G20 and B20 summit have a key role to play in this regard.
The B20 Policy Paper contains a comprehensive set of major policy recommendations. these recommendations have the true support and the backing of the G20 business community and therefore a high degree of legitimacy. We have seen in the last G20 Presidencies that the up-take of the B20 recommendations have rather fair. We hope that the Hangzhou summit takes these B20 recommendations fully into account. IOE jointly with ICC and BIAC will assess the up-take of the recommendations directly after the summit.
Talking about the G20 Hangzhou Summit, Daniel Funes de Rioja said, “In Hangzhou we need clear commitments from G20 leaders to make the G20 an engine for reform. I hope that the Hangzhou summit gives strong impetus to comprehensive reform efforts at national level.”
As talking about the Chinese Presidency of the G 20, Daniel Funes de Rioja said, the Global Business Community has very much looked forward to the Chinese G20 Presidency, knowing that the Chinese G20 can make a huge difference. “Just looking at the tremendous achievements of China in terms of growth, employment creation and poverty reduction in the last 25 years it becomes clear that if there is one country whose voice on growth and employment should be taken seriously, then it is certainly China.”
“We have seen important initiatives coming out of the Chinese G20. Just to name one, the Entrepreneurship initiative within the G20 Employment process is an important approach which has the potential to contribute to more dynamic labour markets, which generate more jobs and which will enable people to reach their full potential by opening their own business, instead of just being employed.” Daniel Funes de Rioja added, it is this kind of entrepreneurial thinking which is so important for policy making at G20 level. However, the legacy of the Chinese G20 will depend on the question in how far G20 governments follow-up to their commitments at national level after the Hangzhou summit. The B20 will certainly monitor the implementation of the enterprise initiative.
