G20 Hangzhou summit is continuative and constructive: expert Robert Milliner, 2014 B20 Sherpa of Australia
By Bao Jie and Li Feng from People’s Daily
“China this year has been very constructive and diligent about ensuring the continuity of the work that has been done in the last few years in Turkey, Australia and Russia. But also I think China has done an excellent job of introducing some new themes when Chinese President Xi Jinping last year laid out the four themes around innovative, invigorated, interconnected, and inclusive. In my opinion China has done an excellent job in the working group and ministerial meetings that I have observed of ensuring there are practical agendas: the outcomes over the last few months from key Ministerial meetings have all been much focused and very constructive. “says Robert Milliner, 2014 B20 Sherpa of Australia, who has attended many B20 and G20 meetings as a senior advisor.
Milliner considers that this year China has introduced important new themes around innovation, entrepreneurship and inclusive growth. “My expectations of this year are that the G20 will continue to develop the commitments that have been reached in recent years especially around plans to foster economic growth. The continued slowing of global growth has consequences for all countries, for employment and wellbeing of societies. Further, while we know that is difficult for governments, structural reform agendas need to be addressed and China has been providing leadership in this discussion. My biggest expectation is there will be a significant discussion by G20 leaders on what they can do about global growth including structural reforms, and how they get trade and investment going. “
He says the G20 leader’s summit has only existed since 2009, after the financial crisis. “From 2009 to 2012, the G20 was very much driven by the need to make sure there was not a global financial crisis and global depression, so the primary focus was to make sure the global financial financial was stable and that trade continues to develop without reverting to protectionism. From 2013 to this year, the focus of B20 and G20 has moved to focus on a sustainable recovery from the financial crisis, getting global growth and employment going. During the 2014 G20 summit held in Australia, there was an action plan agreed by G20 Leaders to lift global GDP by 2 percent in 5 years, and there were significant commitments made by G20 members on specific actions to be taken by them. ”
Milliner points out that the big issues for the B20 in the last few years, and again this year in China have been centered around the financial architecture. “Since the financial crisis, a lot has been done by the G20 and Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors through the Financial Stability Board to ensure that we have a safe and stable financial system. There have been major reforms of the banking system, with significant steps taken to ensure that we have an appropriate and safe financial system. The B20 concern now is that some of those reforms are actually restricting the flow of money to certain sectors and in certain markets, for example SMEs. , So the B20 continues to encourage the G20 to review the financial reforms, not to take away the stability they provide but to ensure that we are not having unintended negative consequences. So there are some key areas around economic and financial architecture that the B20 would like the G20 to make a move on this year.
The B20 Policy Recommendations will be submitted to G20 leaders during the B20 Summit to be held in Hangzhou from September 3 to 4, 2016. Milliner has involved in and contributed a lot to the paper. He considers that 20 recommendations from B20 are very important in promoting the global economy growth. “Trade is a critical issue for global economic growth, the current trade and investment level is still far below what it was before the 2008-2009 global financial crisis. In July, during the Trade Ministers’ meeting in Shanghai, there were some very good commitments around a G20 trade action plan and investment policy principles. The B20 hopes that G20 leaders will take these recommendations and put them into confirmed action. There are also some very interesting proposals around innovation, entrepreneurship and e-commerce. The fundamental steps the G20 members need to take are around structural reform and infrastructure in all economies whether developed, emerging or developing. As part of this we need more transparency around national development plans, and encourage more investment in green energy to meet the Paris COP21 commitments.”
The 11th G20 Summit will be held in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province on September 4 and 5. Milliner tells People’s Daily that he is very much looking forward to going to Hangzhou. “It’s a beautiful city and obviously has played such a significant part in China’s history as one of the great cities of the past, but now it’s a modern city as so many of the cities in China. I have had a lot to do with people from Hangzhou, but what I always enjoy in China is no matter which city you are in, people are always from anywhere else in China, they always talk about their hometown. So it will be a great opportunity to go and visit, I am sorry I can’t be there longer but I will come back, I am sure!”
