China Focus: China takes over G20 presidency on Dec.1

China will host the 2016 Group of Twenty (G20) summit in the eastern city of Hangzhou from Sept. 4 to 5, and formally take over the presidency of G20 on Dec. 1, 2015.

China's host of the summit shows not only a high degree of trust in China from the international community, but also China's sincere willingness to contribute more to the international community, Chinese President Xi Jinping said in a statement released on Monday night.

The G20 presidency rotates annually among its members. To ensure continuity, the presidency is supported by a "troika" made up of the current, immediate past and next host countries. In 2015, the members of the "troika" are Turkey, Australia and China.

Last year's G20 summit was held in Brisbane, Australia, and this year' s summit was in Antalya, Turkey.

In 2008, the first G20 summit was held in Washington, D.C., the United States, and the group played a key role in response to the global financial crisis.

Xi reviewed the past development of G20 and emphasized that the most valuable thing is the members' partnership, and cooperation will be an inevitable choice for all countries to meet challenges and realize development.

At present, the world economy and international economic cooperation face an important turning point, can we consolidate the foundation of economic recovery and growth to resist risks? Can we grasp the historic opportunity of technology progress and new industry revolution to make the global economy a new round of growth? The answer depends on our common choice and action, Xi said.

At the moment, the international community switches their attention to G20, Xi said, noting that as an important platform where developed countries, developing countries and emerging-market economies have cooperation, G20 plays a crucial role in promoting international economic cooperation.

Xi called on G20 to do more to promote the solution of some extrusive problems of global economy, so as to make efforts to realize the goal of strong, sustainable and balanced growth.

The president called on countries concerned to devote themselves to build an innovative, invigorated, interconnected and inclusive world economy, adding that they will invigorate the global economy and inject impetus to economic growth in relevant countries through innovation-driven development and structural reform.

Xi also called for building community of common destiny, strengthening intercommunication and interconnectivity, enhancing positive economic interaction, improving global economic and financial governance, reducing imbalanced and unequal development, aiming to make people all over the world enjoy benefits equally.

China stands ready to work with relevant countries to implement the consensus reached in the G20 summits of all previous years to initiate new phase of international economic cooperation, Xi said.

U.S. President Barack Obama voiced support for China's presidency, saying that he looks forward to attending the Hangzhou summit, he told Xi on the sidelines of the Antalya summit this month.

Hangzhou, a famous historical and cultural city, is a hub of innovation and vitality. With a population of nearly 8.9 million, it is the capital and largest city of Zhejiang Province.

Zhejiang, well-known for its robust private businesses, ranked fourth among the 31 provincial-level regions on the Chinese mainland in terms of GDP in 2014.

Xi worked in Zhejiang between 2002 and 2007 as head of the provincial committee of the Communist Party of China.

"I am looking forward to meeting you in Hangzhou in September next year." Xi said. Endi