This is the final of a four-part series on the G20 Seoul Summit agenda. ― ED.
1. Framework for strong, sustainable, balanced growth (Aug. 13)
2. Reform of the IMF (Aug. 23)
3. Basel III new banking regulations (Sep. 2)
By Cho Jin-seo
The G20 has a publicity problem. What it deals with mostly is issues on global finance and macroeconomic policies, which ordinary people do not know of, and do not care to know about. Only the development agenda _ helping poor countries get out of poverty _ has the power to win the empathy of the public. Sadly, this has made little impact and progress so far, compared to other lesser-known issues such as financial reform and bank capital ratios, which are almost completed.
Ban Ki-moon, the secretary general of the United Nations, feels that the development issue deserves more attention within the G20.
“The G20 meeting has focused on current affairs that need immediate actions. But there is criticism that it has neglected other agendas such as development and climate change,” he told Korean correspondents in New York last week. “We have to appreciate that the G20 selected a development agenda for the Seoul summit for the first time, and the United Nations member nations highly recognize such efforts.”
Sakong Il, the chairman of Seoul’s G20 host committee, stresses that the issue is critical for long-term, sustainable economic growth for the global economy, and the advanced nations need to recognize that pouring aid money and food into poor countries won’t help them much in the long term.
“In the last few decades, the development doctrine focused primarily on aid for alleviating poverty, rather than on promoting genuine economic development by increasing the capability of the lowest income countries,” he said during a speech at the Peterson Institute of International Economy in New York, earlier this month.
“In Seoul, we would like the G20 to establish a new framework of development with multi?year action plans. Korea, which has recently gone from being an aid recipient to an aid donor, can act as a bridge between the developed and developing worlds in this effort.”
The development agenda is also critical for the legitimacy of the G20 meeting itself. Many non-G20 countries are understandably suspicious about the activities of this prestigious meeting.
“Who decides the members of the G20, and on what grounds?" Chang Ha-joon, an economics professor at the University of Cambridge, asked in a June interview with The Korea Times. “There are about 2.7 billion people living in the G20 nations. That means there are still 3.3 billion people not represented by this G20 initiative. To truly represent the world, the G20 leaders should not forget this and should consider the interest of neglected people as well.”
The G20 nations will have a working gruop meeting on the development agenda next week, and will prepare a multi-year action plan for each country by the Seoul Summit.
The development initiative will pay little attention on the financial aspect of aid programs. Instead, it will provide an universal guideline, an official at Seou's G20 preparation committee said.
"People will begin quoting Seoul Summit's statement when they need justfication for foreign aid programs," he said. "That can be more valuable than making yet another financial commitment."
*We apologize that the publication of this article had been postponed from the original scheduled date of Sept. 22 due to the Chuseok holiday.