Others

G20 well-organized but more English guides needed

By Lee Hyo-won Some 20,000 media people gathered from all over the world for the G20 Seoul Summit, providing a ripe opportunity for the city to show its capacity to host events of such magnitude while exposing its cultural assets. May reporters from afar were impressed with the overall smooth organization and showed avid interest in the local culture, but experienced some difficulties due to language barriers and other factors. ``The summit was very well organized. Seoul is certainly a world capital and this is a great opportunity for Korea to showcase Seoul’s such look. When Korea joined the IMF it was the poorest member state but it is now one of the wealthiest countries. It has a lot to be proud of and summits of this nature are a great opportunity for Korea and Koreans to show what they’ve accomplished,’’ William Murray, chief of media relations at the International Monetary Fund (IMF) told The Korea Times at the Coex, Thursday. Alistair Thomson, a press officer for the IMF, who stepped out of a Korean seafood restaurant with Murray, agreed and added, ``Seoul is an e

Coex offers taste of Korea to delegations

By Bae Ji-sook The G20 Seoul Summit is more than a meeting of politicians and financiers. The organizers of the global event are striving to use this as an opportunity to promote the best cultural aspects of Korea to the delegation and media crew from around the world. On the first floor of Coex in southern Seoul, where the G20 summit hall and the media center are located, every bit of the place is covered with the “beauty of Korea” to try and spark people’s curiosity in the far Eastern country. Impress journalists At the media center where more than 1,200 foreign journalists are expected to write and broadcast about the summit and its host country Korea, a large electronic display board constantly playing promotional videos of Korea was installed. From ancient kingdoms to state-of-the-art information technology, the video, “Enduring Voices of Korea,” portrays history, culture and other various aspects of Korea. At the cafeteria inside the center, creations of some of Korea’s most famous authors were displayed. Novels by Hwang Suk-young, Kim Young-ha and poems of Ki

VIPs prove fashion is a statement

By Bae Ji-sook We didn’t need Michelle Obama or Carla Bruni to light up the festive atmosphere. We didn’t miss Cuban-native Narciso Rodriguez or French house Dior’s outfits either. VIPs and their spouses visiting Korea have definitely sizzled at the G20 Seoul Summit with their own fashionable outfits, representing their national identity but remaining unique to themselves. Their looks definitely narrow the gaps between the VIPs and ordinary citizens, who feel distanced by the complicated summit agendas. The Korea Times looked into the fashion statements that were made and picked the best dressers. Ties tell all In the case of men, it is quite hard to define one’s style since the textures and tailoring of individual outfits seem one and the same in many cases. The neck ties speak loudest most of the time. At the summit, red was the definite color of choice with most of the VIPs choosing subtle stripes to distinguish themselves. However, U.S. President Barack Obama chose black and champagne stripes, U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron picked violet and Medvedev

France sets ambitious goals for 2011 summit

By Lee Tae-hoon France, the next host of the G20 summit in 2011, is gearing up to tackle tasks that no other host nation has ever attempted to undertake in the framework of the previous G8 and G20 summits ― reform of the international monetary system and the United Nations. French President Nicolas Sarkozy firmly stated in August that he will place the two ambitious goals at the top of the agenda, when he unveiled a set of plans for France’s G20 summit. France will also plan to uphold the Korea Initiative ― development issues and the establishment of a global financial safety net ― that President Lee Myung-bak proposed last year to bring a new perspective to the forum for global economic cooperation. French officials, including Bank of France Governor Christian Noyer said, Paris will work hard to further develop the Korea Initiative. “The French presidency of the G20 intends to continue all the work that has been done by the current presidency, and as I said there have been remarkable achievements in many fields,” Noyer said in October. France, however, will take

First ladies to taste royal court cuisine

By Lee Hyo-won While the G20 leaders won’t be able to show off their chopstick skills during the intensive business meals, their spouses will have a chance to do so when they taste Korean court cuisine in Seoul, Friday. The first ladies and VIP spouses were served Western-style meals at the Samsung Leeum Museum on Thursday evening, but will be trying something more traditional at the Korean Furniture Museum on Friday afternoon. Befitting the venue, a time-honored ``hanok’’ (traditional Korean building) that was used as a vacation home during the Joseon Kingdom (1392-1910), the event will feature savory palace-style meals from the same period. Lee Jae-uk, a chef at the Sheraton Grande Walkerhill Hotel, will be preparing the dishes. The 54-year-old poured much time deciding on a menu that would retain local traditions while still cater to the palates of guests coming from some 20 different countries around the world. ``First lady Kim Yoon-ok asked for something very Korean, refined and made with care, that isn’t too sweet or salty. President Lee Myung-bak tasted the mea

Park Sam-koo, right, Kumho Asiana Group chairman, ...

Rethinking global rebalancing

By Stephen S. Roach Persistent global imbalances are a manifestation of all that is wrong with an increasingly interdependent world economy. They are an outgrowth of the excesses that gave rise to the Great Crisis and Recession of 2008-09. They are hobbling a post-crisis healing. And they have sparked the early skirmishes of a “currency war,” which could push the world down the very slippery slope of trade frictions and protectionism. A failure to take major steps on the road of global rebalancing poses the distinct possibility of a relapse and another crisis. That’s the bad news. The good news is that the G20 finally appears to get it. A recent proposal by U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner has the potential to be a game changer in the global rebalancing debate. It shifts the onus of the adjustment process away from a dubious and circuitous currency realignment toward a direct assault on the world’s underlying current account and saving disparities. Its strength lies in its practicality. By focusing directly in the imbalances themselves, the Geithner approach

Further weakening of reserve currency

By Oscar Ugarteche The previously existing world power structure is all but over. The world resulting from the Pax Americana of 1944 and expressed in the G7 group of countries now has to confront the fact that it no longer controls most of the world’s GDP and that by 2016 it will be in a minority position in terms of total GDP. This means that Europe as a whole will have to redefine its global role and the United States will no longer be able to act unilaterally on economic fronts. Asia has a new role to play in helping to ensure international economic and financial stability in face of mature economies that need to devalue their currencies in order to import less and export more. The beggar-thy neighbor-policy again being deployed these days was what led the 1930s crisis into a depression with deflation. Both then and now it was meant to try and keep weakening economic powers on top of their economic game. That failed and ended in the creation of the economic stabilization fund sponsored by the Roosevelt government and designed by Harry White, later creator of the Int

Fairness, balance, and common good

By Kofi A. Annan Ahead of today’s G20 summit in South Korea, two issues stand out for those of us who take an interest in international development. First, the concepts of fairness, balance, and the common good have experienced a welcome renaissance as world leaders have had to remind each other of these universal principles to avoid a potentially devastating escalation of their disagreements on currency values and trade imbalances. Second, while it remains to be seen to what extent it will help to bring countries’ contending economic strategies into line, this rediscovery of basic values comes just as the G20 is beginning to include international development issues in its deliberations. Naturally, it is my profound hope that the principles of fairness, balance and the common good which have become so popular with G20 leaders lately will also inform these discussions ― and not only those on issues like undervalued currencies, lopsided trade statistics or skewed consumption patterns however important they may be. Unfortunately, the signs are decidedly mixed. On th

Development agenda to enhance G20’s legitimacy

Seoul provides alternative to one-size-fits-all formula By Ahn Choong –yong It is historic that Korea, the first non-Western and non-G8 country, chairs the fifth G20 leaders meeting in Seoul this week. Once among the poorest economies, Korea now takes center stage at one of the world’s premier forums and can contribute to the inception of a post-crisis global architecture through the development agenda. The formal inclusion of a Korea initiative on development as a focus of the Seoul G20 agenda is aimed at bridging the 172 non-G20 countries and G20 members. The collective effort of the G20 since the eruption of the unprecedented financial crisis has proved effective in bringing about a quick recovery, albeit with varying degrees of success in individual countries, making it the premier forum to redesign the post-crisis global economic architecture. However, questions about the legitimacy of the G20 process have naturally been raised because it is a self-selected grouping. But legitimacy even for an informal group like the G20 depends on its ability to deliver on t