Success of G20 Summit depends on int'l cooperation
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With the Seoul G20 Summit just around the corner, South Korean President Lee Myung-bak said the success of the summit will depend on the cooperation of the international community.
In a joint interview with Xinhua and six other major media from China, South Korea, the United States, the Europe Union (EU) and Japan ahead of the G20 summit, Lee said the G20 Summit, which came after the latest global financial crisis started in 2008 with an aim to diagnose the crisis and make prescriptions, has turned into an important forum in which all key issues can be discussed.
However, the Seoul Summit, slated for Nov. 11 to 12, comes in a difficult situation, Lee noted.
In early days of the crisis, the international community made active efforts to work together to deal with the turmoil, but now "it is unrealistic to expect that countries will have uniform positions on every key issue because each of them has a different economic situation and policy background," Lee said.
"What really counts is to demonstrate a spirit of concession and compromise through concerted efforts," he added.
"As a matter of fact, the strength of the G20 lies in the fact that even though the process of reaching a consensus is difficult, the impact and ripple effect of any agreement will be enormous," Lee said.
Lee believed that, on condition that the 20 leading economies achieved the mutual recognition on the main issues such as the ongoing currency dispute, there will be positive prospects for tiding over the crisis.
However, Lee said, though the group controls 85 percent of the world's economy, there are also more than 170 other countries throughout the globe. Only by engaging in outreach activities in those non-G20 countries to reflect their views and opinions, can the G20 possesses credibility and rationality.
As the developed nations' economy remains weary, the growth of the developing countries will be the road leading to the global economic growth, Lee noted.
"The development issue, in my mind, is not unilateral assistance from the developed nations to underdeveloped countries, but means cooperation and collaboration between the two sides, which also benefits the developed nations' own economy", Lee said.
Lee expressed optimistic expectations for the upcoming summit.
" Many fruitful results are expected at the Seoul Summit," Lee said.
The building blocks for it "have already been put in place for such issues as reform of the IMF and the finance sector, the establishment of financial safety nets, ways to address global imbalances and international cooperation on the exchange rate issue," Lee said.
