Spotlight: G20 seeks to restart global economy through innovation, development

The Group of 20 summit, which was born out of the financial crisis, has been looked up to once again in prescribing new ways out of stagnant growth and low trade flows in today's world.

This will be a pragmatic summit, said Australian think tank Lowy Institute for International Policy.

It hoped China, as the host of summit in September, will be able to set the tone for the G20 to return to the economic arena and face up to the world economic challenges.

INNOVATION

The theme of this year's G20 summit is "Toward an Innovative, Invigorated, Interconnected and Inclusive World Economy."

Innovation has been a hot topic for governments around the world and is a key theme of this year's summit.

"There has been innovation in China for thousands and thousands of years when China and India dominated the world economy up to 1700 so it's not a new thing for China," said Tim Harcourt, an economist with the University of New South Wales.

"I think it's just something that the G20 wants to talk about to disseminate the message ... I think the summit does help create an environment for it," said Harcourt.

In the long term, innovation is the most reliable force propelling economic development, said David Gosset, founder of the Euro-China Forum. "China does provide a sound platform for discussing sci-tech innovation and its future influence."

In preparations for the summit, China last week held a G20 "innovation for growth" special conference in Beijing focusing on innovation, new industrial revolution and digital economy.

Andrew Wyckoff, director of Directorate for Science, Technology and Innovation of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, lauded China for shifting the focus of G20 from efforts to "repair the scar of crisis to now, looking more forward at how do we get strong and resilient growth."

Wyckoff believed growth based on innovation and technology will be stronger, and it increases productivity and promotes social welfare, and in many cases, it's much more less demanding of the environment.

DEVELOPMENT

Initiated by China, the G20 summit has for the first time highlighted the issue of development in meeting all the global political and economic challenges.

The United Nations last year endorsed the new sustainable development agenda up to 2030, a blueprint for eradicating poverty across the world for the next 15 years.

"The world needs a big stride forward to realize common prosperity," said Chun Ka-lim, a professor with the Hoseo University in South Korea.

The professor said China played a special role in this process, and its Belt and Road Initiative and Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) are key parts of China's efforts to push for common development.

In more than two years, the "One Belt One Road" initiative took off smoothly with a good beginning, and achieved a series of important early-stage harvests.

More than 70 countries and organizations expressed their support and willingness to join the initiative, exceeding the traditional area of "One Belt, One Road," essentially forming an international cooperation frame with extensive influences.

At the same time, 34 countries and international organizations signed intergovernmental cooperation agreements with China to build "One Belt, One Road."

Meanwhile, the AIIB started to operate at the beginning of this year. Silk Road Fund formally launched its first batch of investment projects. Countries along the line are actively discussing the establishment or the expansion of bilateral cooperation funds of all kinds.

ORIENTAL WISDOM

Participants in the upcoming G20 summit are bestowed with the opportunity of absorbing the oriental wisdom from China, which is the world's second-largest economy, the biggest developing country as well as the biggest emerging economy.

Jim O'Neill, a minister in the British government as commercial secretary to the Treasury who coined the term "BRIC" to refer to four fast-growing emerging markets, said that the G20 summit to be held in China marked a change in the approach to the international community's economic role: "It is a very historic moment in global economic governance. "

O'Neill said that China had had "remarkable success," notwithstanding some of its considerable challenges, in raising the welfare and wealth of its 1.3 billion people.

"I think it can help others, especially in the emerging world, of moving down a similar path and contributing to a stable and more prosperous world economy," said O'Neill in a recent interview with Xinhua.

The Royal Institute of International Affairs Chatham House echoed this point in its report released in March this year. The report also noted that as the biggest emerging economy, China can assert an influence on the agenda of global economic governance.

Other countries are ready to learn from the Chinese experience from the point of view of the speed and strength shown in its economic transition, the report added. Endi