The second Group of 20 (G20) Summit concluded in London on Thursday with consensus on how to save the world out of the financial crisis, including pledge of US$1.1 trillion to revive the world economy, a joint call to fight protectionism, and concrete actions to tighten banking regulations.

This was announced by British Prime Minister Gordon Brown after G20 leaders concluded an intensive day of talks at the Excel conference censer in east London.

Stressing that global problems need global solutions, Brown said that the world leaders had reached consensus on taking global actions together to deal with the problems we face. "We will take essential actions to restore confidence and trust in our financial systems," he said.

According to the post-summit Leaders' Statement, the G20 leaders pledged to do "whatever necessary" to restore confidence, growth, and jobs; repair the financial system to restore lending; strengthen financial regulation to rebuild trust; fund and reform international financial institutions; promote global trade and investment and reject protectionism, and build an inclusive, green and sustainable recovery.

"By acting together to fulfil these pledges we will bring the world economy out of recession and prevent a crisis like this from recurring in the future," said the statement.

Among the additional funds to be injected into international financial institutions, US$500 billion will go to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for it to lend to countries hit hard by the financial crisis, US$250 billion will be used to support a new Special Drawing Rights (SDR) , US$100 billion will support additional lending by the multilateral development banks, and US$250 billion will be devoted to guarantee trade finance.

Of the additional funding for the IMF, US$40 billion will come from China, US$100 billion from the EU, and US$100 billion from Japlan, according to Brown.

"Together with the measures we have taken nationally, this constitutes a global plan for recovery on an unprecedented scale," said the statement, adding that the G20 leaders are confident that the agreements reached Thursday will accelerate the return to trend growth.

On strengthening financial supervision and regulation, the leaders agreed to take action to build a stronger, more globally consistent, supervisory and regulatory network for the future financial sector to rebuild trust in the financial system.

The leaders have agreed to establish a new Financial Stability Board, to reshape regulatory systems for authorities to extend regulation and oversight to all systematically important financial institutions, instruments and markets, including hedge funds, to take action against non-cooperative jurisdictions including tax havens.

"The era of banking secrecy is over," said Brown.

Meanwhile, the G20 leaders spoke out their opposition to trade protectionism and determination to promote and facilitate global trade and investment, and remained committed to a quick conclusion of the Doha Round of world trade talks as soon as possible.

"We reaffirm the commitment made in Washington: to refrain from raising new barriers to investment or to trade in goods and services, imposing new export restrictions, or implementing World Trade Organization (WTO) inconsistent measures to stimulate exports," said the Leaders' Statement.

To ensure a "fair and sustainable recovery for all," the summit reaffirmed the commitment to meeting the UN Millennium Development Goals and to achieving ODA (official development assistance) pledges, including commitments on Aid for Trade, debt relief, and the Gleneagles commitments, especially to sub-Saharan Africa.

Furthermore, the G20 leaders reaffirm the commitment to address the threat of irreversible climate change, based on the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities, and to reach agreement at the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen in next December.

According to Brown, the G20 leaders are scheduled to meet again before the end of this year to review progress on their commitments.

(Xinhua News Agency April 3, 2009)