Focus required on global financial structure
China's presidency of the G20 in 2016 will face challenges and opportunities in rebalancing global economic governance, according to a report released Thursday ahead of a meeting of finance ministers and central bankers from G20 nations to be held in Shanghai on Friday and Saturday.
The Shanghai Institutes for International Studies (SIIS), the China Center for International Economic Exchanges (CCIEE) and the UN Development Programme (UNDP) jointly launched the report, titled Rebalancing Global Economic Governance - Opportunities for China and the G20 beyond 2015, at the Multinational Development Banks and G20 Development Agenda T20 Shanghai Conference on Thursday.
"All eyes are on the G20 [and] whether it can be reenergized to inject new momentum for growth, prevent risks, facilitate structural reforms and strengthen cooperation among its member nations and relevant parties to prevent another global recession," SIIS President Chen Dongxiao said at the meeting Thursday.
All these will present unprecedented challenges to China as a host in 2016, Chen said.
As for China's priorities for the G20 in 2016, Wei Jianguo, vice chairman of the CCIEE, pointed out at the meeting that among all crises, financial ones are the most difficult to handle, so global economic governance should be based on resolving financial problems and improving financial structures.
Other priorities may include sustainable development, which aims to deal with wealth gaps, unemployment and stalling economic growth, as well as the climate issue, according to Wei.
Infrastructure investment has emerged as a new priority, according to the report, an areas that requires enhanced support from multinational development banks.
"On the one hand, there is a huge financing gap; on the other, we have massive liquidity. Why hasn't the money flowed into infrastructure? [Because] there is a weak or missing link," Chen Huan, chief officer of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, said at the Thursday event.
"I think this is one of the areas where multinational institutions can have a bigger role."
