Overseas analysts hail China's role in G20

BEIJING - Overseas China-watchers have hailed the country's active and more mature role in the Group of 20 (G20) by hosting a summit that highlighted innovation and cooperation to spur global economic growth.

The G20 Summit concluded on Monday in the eastern Chinese city of Hangzhou with the adoption of a statement outlining the group's direction and development goals, and with the Hangzhou Consensus on facilitating global economic growth through innovative and inclusive long-term measures.

Calling for innovation, cooperation

China played an "essential role" at the G20 Summit, calling on the world's major economies to promote innovation and cooperation, Gustavo Girado, head of the Buenos Aires-based consulting firm Asia & Argentina, told Xinhua in a recent interview.

China's hosting of the gathering served to steer the group's focus toward these two factors, which could play a key role in reviving the global economy, Girado said.

With terrorism and acts of violence being a continued threat to global stability, China "was willing to reorient the order of interests toward the institutional and economic issues that originally gave rise to the group," Girado said.

As this year's president, China set the tone and agenda by selecting the theme "Toward an innovative, invigorated, interconnected and inclusive global economy."

"It is evident in the group's final declaration that the general guidelines China proposed for the agenda of the meeting have been included, and that's important," said Girado, adding that it helps to raise the bar for the next G20 Summit to be held in Germany.

G20 members "agreed on guidelines to coordinate policies and spur growth by promoting innovation, which is an especially important matter for (Chinese) President Xi Jinping, who has taken up this cause," said the economist.

A recession is the main challenge to global economic development, Girado said.

"The slowdown of China's economy, which is undergoing a period of reforms, is a real issue," Girado said, adding that the crux of the matter is that a lot depends on the dynamism of the Chinese economy.

As a result, the world is looking to China and its large-scale development projects, he said.

"Highly ambitious regional development plans, such as The Belt and Road initiative, leveraged by financing from multinational entities such as the AIIB (Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank) and the BRICS bank, have drawn the world's attention," said Girado.

However, Girado said the G20 is a collection of sometimes divergent developed or emerging economies with "important and powerful rival interests" coexisting within the bloc.

"This is where China plays an essential role, and it appears to have duly noted that. Today its interests are more linked than ever to the progress of its partners, even the small ones," he said.

"China has been fundamental in promoting cooperation to spur innovation, and encouraging individual initiatives and coordination schemes in different fields, including supporting a multilateral trade system," he said.

Considering interests of developing nations

As the biggest developing country in the world, China, which shoulders the responsibility of maintaining and expanding the rights and interests of other developing countries, has invited a record number of developing countries to the G20 Summit, including Egypt.

"It is the first time for Egypt, which is not a G20 member state, to take part in such a huge event referred to by economists as 'the board of the world economy'... at a time when the Egyptian government is making intensified efforts to reform its economy and facing a bunch of massive challenges," Egyptian state-run daily newspaper Al-Ahram said Wednesday.

In another article published on the newspaper, Mohamed Fayez Farahat, head of Asian Studies unit at the Al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies, held that Egypt's participation in the G20 Summit "has important implications not only concerning Egypt's growing weight in the international community but also about the development of the G20 itself, its understanding of a number of challenges still facing the group and the role Egypt could play in dealing with some of these challenges."

The author called for reconsidering the formation structure of the G20, noting that "among the basic motivations for the establishment of the group was to provide a greater chance for fair representation of rising powers and markets in administrating the issues of world economy."

Mansour Abou El-Azam, an Egyptian journalist and writer, said that China has presented an excellent model for the world in hosting the G20 Summit.

He said that China has proven its capability to have an active and more mature role in global affairs.