President Xi hails G20 consensus on major challenges

Leaders of the world's major economies reached consensus during the G20 Summit on seeking workable solutions for global growth and development, a consensus that one analyst described as having China's "distinctive stamp".

In his concluding remarks, President Xi Jinping said summit participants reached "important consensus" on such G20 tasks as strengthening policy coordination, breaking a new path for growth, achieving more efficient and effective global economic and financial governance, boosting international trade and investment and enhancing anti-graft efforts.

Besides tackling regular challenges, such as promoting innovation to provide new engines for global economic growth, world leaders at the summit, which ended on Sept 5 in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, emphasized inclusive growth and development of less-developed countries.

Xi called this progress "groundbreaking".

"For the first time, we have given priority to development in the global macro-policy framework," a move that will "help reduce inequality and imbalance in global development, deliver tangible benefits to people of the developing world, make important progress toward realizing the (United Nations) Sustainable Development Goals by 2030 and contribute to the common development of mankind", he said.

Su Ge, president of the China Institute of International Studies, says the consensus shows that China, as the host and a developing country, has played a significant role in contributing its ideas to global governance.

"It has the distinctive stamp of China, although the outcomes result from contributions of all G20 members and international institutions," Su says, adding that the summit was not a Chinese solo or duet, but rather a symphony.

The outcomes of the G20 Summit reflect the direction of G20 reform in serving the common interests of developed and developing countries, he says.

"The rise of the G20 comes from the failure of traditional organizations, such as the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, in handling global economic and financial crises," says Zhu Jiejin, a researcher of global governance studies at Fudan University in Shanghai.

"The G20 mechanism is quite flexible, and since the world economic situation often changes, flexibility is the biggest advantage of the G20 in handling crisis," Zhu says.

The summit reflects a change of China's role in global governance from a participant to a lead reformer, according to analysts.

"China has given the prescription that the world economies should not form small interest groups, but should use the G20 as a common governance platform to step toward a community of common destiny," says Wei Jianguo, vice-president of the China Center for International Economic Exchanges.

Contact the writers at zhangyunbi@chinadaily.com.cn