Right on the money

Expectations rise for G20 Business Summit

By Kim Tong-hyung

It appears that the entire nation is behind the whole Group of 20 affair, but organizers of the Seoul Business Summit, frequently dubbed as ''B20,'' are hoping that locals could remember another acronym.

Not that the event, which is to complement the G20 meetings of political leaders and finance chiefs, would be easy to miss.
More than 120 global business leaders, including Nestle Chairman Peter Brabeck-Letmathe, Deutsche Bank Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Josef Ackermann and Bosch Group Chairman Franz Fehrenbach, have confirmed they will attend the Nov. 10 and 11

conference that aims to discuss the private sector's role in strengthening the recovery of the world economy.

SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won, Hyundai Automotive Group Chairman Chung Mong-koo and LG Group Chairman Koo Bon-moo will lead the delegation of Koreans, and organizers are hoping that Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Kun-hee will make an appearance after working out a schedule conflict.

However, a letdown for organizers has been high-profile figures, such as Microsoft founder Bill Gates, Visa Chairman Joseph Saunders, ArcelorMittal Chairman Lakshmi Mittal and Areva CEO Anne Lauvergeon, waiving on their previous commitments.

According to organizers, 37 of the business chiefs are from the manufacturing and technology sectors, while 29 of them are from the finance industry and 26 from energy. The total sales of the companies taking part in the business summit add up to $4 trillion, or five times the gross domestic product (GDP) of Korea, and their assets total around $30 trillion.

The forum's agenda will cover both the immediate issues related to current business conditions and markets as well as exploring the possibilities of a coherent approach toward achieving robust and sustainable economic growth, with the main topics including trade and investment liberalization, innovation and technology advancement, and helping developing economies.

The roundtable discussions will provide an opportunity for direct exchanges between the business leaders and G20 political leaders, with 11 heads-of-states, obviously including Korean President Lee Myung-bak, having confirmed their participation so far.

G20 leaders have been pressed to work more closely with the business community, as with government stimulus winding down, the private sector will have to step in and pick up much of the responsibility for economic growth from here on out.
Korea is pushing to make the business summit a regular part of the G20 process, to solidify its status as the main channel for private-sector input for the discussions on global economic policies.

''Currently, there are exactly 120 chief executives and other high-profile business figures from 34 countries who have confirmed they will attend the business summit. We are still getting a lot of interest from companies wanting to get in, so the final number could change by a bit,'' Oh Young-ho, vice chairman of the Korea International Trade Association (KITA) and the commissioner of the Seoul G20 Business Summit's organizing committee, said in a news briefing last week. According to Oh, 25 of the 120 CEOs come from companies based in non-G20 countries.

''One of our priorities has been to encourage direct communication between the business leaders and G20 heads of states. The number of heads of states participating in the round table discussions could be 12 or more, with the leaders of leading economies like Germany and Britain confirming their participation, and leaders of developing economies like Russia and Indonesia expressing interest,'' he said.

Trade liberalization garners most focus

The agenda of the Seoul business summit will be divided into four main themes ― boosting trade activity and investment, stabilizing financial systems, achieving "green" growth, and encouraging corporate social responsibility (CSR) ― and each of the four themes will be divided into three sub-topics.

Organizers say that the companies involved in the business summit are serious about assuring that the forum becomes much more than just a lavish sideshow to the G20 talks. Each picking one from the 12 topics, the participating CEOs have been working closely with their boardroom lieutenants and their counterparts at other companies since July to product reports and other discussion material to be shared in Seoul.

After mingling at the welcoming reception and dinner at the forum's venue of the Sheraton Walkerhill Hotel, the business leaders will wake up to a busy day on Nov. 11 when they will be challenged to convert their efforts of the past three months into results that transcend diplomatic blather.

In the discussions regarding trade and investment, Victor Fung, chairman of Hong Kong's L & Fung Group, was picked as the convener for the debates on trade liberalization, while Peter Brabeck-Letmathe, chairman of food giant Nestle, will orchestrate the talks on driving international investment. Stephen Green, chairman of the HSBC British Holdings Group, will be the convener for the discussions on inspiring entrepreneurship and helping small businesses.

For the discussions on the finance theme, Peter Sands, Standard Chartered CEO, will lead the talks on the current conditions of financial markets and their connections with the real economy. Deutsche Bank CEO Josef Ackermann will be the convener of the talks on fiscal exit strategies while SEB Chairman Marcus Wallenberg will handle the talks on driving investment on research and development (R&D) and infrastructure.

In the discussions on green growth, Jean-Pascal Tricoire, the CEO of Schneider Electric, and Bill Scotting, the AcelorMittal executive vice president who will be filling in for the Mittal chairman, are expected to lead the talks on improving energy efficiency and foster clean, low-power technologies.

Chey Tae-won, SK Group chairman and the only Korean to be picked as a convener, will look over the discussions on renewable energy development, while Ditlev Engel, CEO of Vestas Wind Systems, will lead the talks on creating new ''green'' industry jobs.

On the fourth theme of corporate responsibility, Kris Gopalakrishnan, CEO of Infosys Technologies, will serve as the convener for combating youth unemployment. Yasuchika Hasegawa, CEO of Takeda Pharmaceutical Company, and Cynthia Carroll, CEO of Anglo American, will lead the talks on improving medical services in developing economies and supporting the African region.

An official at Visa's Korean office said the company has yet to decide on the executive to replace Saunders, who had been picked as the convener for the talks on innovation and improving productivity.

Aside of their debates on the world economy and business, the participating business leaders will also be provided the opportunity to explore their specific interests through ''one-on-one'' business meetings with their fellow CEOs.

According to organizers, more than 20 companies have applied for more than 70 business meetings that are to take place on the sidelines of the business summit, with some of the requesting meetings with Korean companies that aren't participating in the forum.

Considering that most of the companies prefer their business talks to be arranged at undisclosed locations that aren't the Sheraton Walkerhill, the real number of business meetings is expected to be a lot larger, organizers said.

''There will be 30 CEOs participating in the discussions for each of the four discussions themes along with the participating heads of states. The Seoul business summit will provide a crucial test on whether the platform could establish itself a permanent place in the G20 process, which will also be critical for elevating G20's relevance as the world's premier forum for global economic policies,'' Oh said.

''The results from the roundtable discussions would be meaningful, as 64 of the companies participating in the business summit are either the largest global firms in their respective industries or the biggest domestic firms of their countries.''

Korean CEOs in B20 crash course

There will be 15 Korean CEOs participating in the business summit, which will serve as a test on whether they could ever be influential as they are profitable in the international business community.

The CEOs are seen preparing actively to engage in the discussions with their global counterparts. SK's Chey has been holding numerous conference calls and video conferences with officials from the companies that will participate in the talks on renewable energy and green technologies to prepare for his role as a convener. The discussions will be focused on strengthening the investment for advancing clean and low-power technologies and strengthening international collaboration between countries and companies to reduce the costs in employing such technologies and alternative energy resources.

POSCO Chairman Chung Joon-yang will also take part in the discussions about green growth, joining Scotting and Tricoire in the roundtable talks for improving energy efficiency. The Korean steelmaker has invested 1.4 trillion won ($1.26 billion) in the past decade on energy saving technologies and equipment employed on its production facilities.

GS Caltex Chairman Hur Dong-soo is expected to present a report that explores the ways for collaboration among companies to improve energy efficiency in production, and how the bigger businesses could contribute in providing an ecosystem for this transition that could also benefit smaller businesses.

Hanjin Group Chairman Cho Yang-ho and Hanwha Group Chairman Kim Seung-youn are both placed in the roundtable discussions for improving R&D and infrastructure investment. Cho has been actively engaging in conference calls with the other CEOs that will join him at the discussions, while Kim's interest in the subject stems from the recent efforts by Hanwha to improve its strengthen its global business involving natural resource development.

KT Chairman Lee Suk-chae has been debating with researchers and economists at the company's economic research unit, Digieco, to prepare for the discussions on innovation and improving productivity, with his presentation centered around the company's vision and strategies for cloud computing. LG Group Chairman Koo Bon-moo will participate in the talks on entrepreneurship and small-business growth.
Hyundai Automotive Group Chairman Chung Mong-koo, who will participate in the talks on trade and investment, is expecting to make a presentation over the Korean prospects of strengthened trade activities with the United States and the European Union should the impending free trade deals between the economies go through.

Doosan Group Chairman Park Yong-hyun, Lotte Group Vice Chairman Shin Dong-bin and Kyobo Life Insurance Chairman Shin Chang-jae will participate in the discussions on corporate social responsibility.

Samsung Electronics hasn't been talking officially about Lee's availability at the business summit, as the chairman, who doubles as the country's International Olympic Committee (IOC) delegate, will have to work out a conflict in schedule with the Guangzhou Asian Games starting on Nov. 12.

''There have been numerous meetings between the companies participating in the business summit to provide the framework of the discussions, which is expected to result in the form of an agreement that will be relayed to the G20 leaders," said an official from the organizing committee.