President Lee Myung-bak on Sunday pushed for the G-20 to take permanent leadership of the global economy, as the ongoing global financial crisis and other challenges have required the involvement of a larger number of countries, Yonhap News reported.
The South Korean leader departed for the United States later in the day to attend the third G-20 summit slated for Friday in Pittsburgh, Penn. He will attend a U.N. summit on climate change in New York before heading to the G-20 gathering.
"As seen in the coordinated response to the current crisis through the G-20, the positive effects of globally coordinated policy responses far outweigh unilateral actions by individual countries combined," Lee was quoted as saying in an article contributed to the G-8 Research Center of Canada's University of Toronto.
The G-20 summit, consisting of 20 advanced and developing economies, took on an expanded role in the wake of the global economic debacle that started last year, replacing the leadership of the Group of Eight (G-8) advanced economies.
"The G-20 summit process has already shown its usefulness in effectively dealing with major global issues for speedier globally concerted actions," President Lee said.
"Furthermore, I would like to re-emphasize the fact that what made the current global financial and economic crisis different from the Great Depression in its severity and duration is definitely the globally concerted policy endeavors mounted, especially on the part of the G-20," Lee said.
"It is my sincere hope that the G-20 leaders in Pittsburgh will agree on the fourth G-20 summit where a full discussion on post-crisis global economic management and sustainable and balanced global growth models can take place," he added.
South Korea is hoping to host the fourth G-20 summit early next year when it will assume the chairmanship of the forum.
"At the fourth G-20 summit, the leaders should seriously consider the institutionalization of the G-20 process as a means to strengthen global governance," Lee said.
The risks of a premature withdrawal of global efforts to fight the ongoing crisis also demand continued leadership of the G-20, the South Korean leader said.
"I hope that the G-20 leaders recognize the need to properly prepare exit strategies for future implementation in a timely manner when the global recovery takes a firm hold," he said.
"The global community should be more wary about the possibility of falling back into a double-dip recession as a consequence of the premature withdrawal of rather effective policy measures taken so far," Lee added.