Business 20 Forum. G20/В20 Priorities: Financing Growth, Trade and Investment
On June 16, 2016, the Business 20 Forum was held as part of the 20th St. Petersburg International Economic Forum. Attending the Forum were representatives of China, Australia, Germany, and Russia.
Heads of concerned international institutions, representatives of business and state authorities from G20 explored the agenda for B20 target groups and recommendations for G20 leaders pertaining to financial regulation, trade, and investments.
The panel session entitled ‘G20/B20 Priorities: Financing Growth, Trade and Investment’ was moderated by the President of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs (RSPP) Alexander Shokhin. The participants discussed methods for ensuring efficient regulation and internationalization of financial markets, as well as for boosting global investment. Other matters discussed at the panel session also included the issues of securing efficient functioning of the international trade system, implementation of the Trade Facilitation Agreement and rational deployment of finance to foster economic growth in the post-crisis period of global economy recovery.
The series of speeches was opened by Ping Yu, Vice-Chair, Sherpa, B20 China. He reported that B20 had drawn up the five key objectives for G20. These are: financing growth, trade, investment, infrastructure and employment. B20 prepared recommendations based on these objectives. Upon that, Mr. Ping Yu outlined the main ideas of the recommendations – the significance of innovations, reasonable regulation and investment in infrastructure.
Chen Yuan, Vice Chairman of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), stated that total direct investments into Chinese economy had reached USD 1.1 trillion by the end of 2015. “It’s the first time that we have surpassed the trillion threshold and embarked on the era of rapid growth of direct foreign investments in China,” CPPCC Vice Chairman noted. Chen Yuan called Russian investors to allocate funds in China and emphasized the positive experience of Russian-Chinese cooperation.
Alexey Ulyukaev, Minister of Economic Development of the Russian Federation, stressed the importance of the B20 recommendations. He reported recovery of the Russian economy and stated that the recession would be completely over by the end of the year, thus enabling Russia to start building up its GDP.
Among the barriers that hinder economic growth, Mr. Ulyukaev mentioned artificial underrating of currency exchange rates, crediting limitations and sanctions. “The sanctions merely result in worse terms of export crediting for Russian manufacturers and hence artificially limit Russia’s competitiveness at international markets,” Alexey Ulyukaev asserted.
Jianmin Miao, Vice-Chairman and President of China Life Insurance (Group) Company, presented the B20 recommendations on financing growth. He spoke about reforming regulations in the financial sector, developing investment markets and implementing new digital technology.
High productiveness of Chinese colleagues during their chairmanship in the B20 was pointed out by Andrey Kostin, President and Chairman of the Management Board of VTB Bank. He stressed that such an important element as diversification of international settlement currencies was no longer in the Finance Taskforce recommendations.
“As we all know, the topic is burning. The first currency that claims this position is the Chinese yuan. If for some reasons China finds it uncomfortable to promote it, it should be done by us and the next B20 chairmen,” Mr. Kostin said.
The Trade and Investment Taskforce recommendations were presented by Ping Yu, Vice-Chair, Sherpa, B20 China. The Business 20 should strengthen the multilateral trade system, foster its growth and prevent emergence of protectionist measures while fighting the already existing ones.
Another key recommendation of the Trade and Investment Taskforce calls the G20 members for ratification of the Trade Facilitation Agreement. Moreover, G20 should make efforts to improve the global investment environment.
