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Spotlight on China
SPOTLIGHT ON CHINA
Responding to
new challenges in the
global economy
Promoting strong, sustainable and balanced growth
is key to the G20 Finance Track, writes Lou Jiwei
Lou Jiwei
Minister of Finance, People’s Republic of China
Over the past eight years, as the premier
forum for international economic
cooperation, the G20 has been playing
a vital role in dealing with the financial
crisis, as well as in promoting the global
recovery and economic governance reform. However,
the global economy remains weak and fragile.
Short-term downside risks and mid- to long-term
challenges, including the slowing growth of total
factor productivity and declining potential output, are
intertwined. We still face the tough task of achieving
strong, sustainable and balanced growth. After
assuming the G20 presidency of 2016, China adopted
“Towards an Innovative, Invigorated, Interconnected
and Inclusive World Economy” as the theme of the
Hangzhou Summit, and commits to achieving more
sustainable growth and prosperity.
Great efforts
In this context, guided by the theme of the Hangzhou
Summit, the G20 Finance Track took great efforts this
year to strengthen the G20 structural reform agenda,
further improve global economic governance and
foster mid- to long-term economic growth, while taking
proactive measures to cope with short-term global
economic and financial risks and promote the economic
recovery. The G20 members discussed issues concerning
the global economy, the Framework for Strong,
Sustainable and Balanced Growth, the international
financial architecture, investment and infrastructure,
financial sector reform, international tax, green finance,
climate finance and anti-terrorist financing, and
made joint contributions to a number of positive
and pragmatic outcomes.
We made further progress on macroeconomic
policy coordination. In response to shocks, including
international financial market turmoil, commodity
price volatility, geopolitical risks and the outcome of
the referendum on the United Kingdom’s membership
in the European Union, since the beginning of 2016
G20 members took concerted actions in coordinated
ways to boost growth and confidence. Among them,
we are committed to using all policy tools – monetary,
fiscal and structural – individually and collectively to
strengthen growth, to consulting closely on exchange
markets, to refraining from competitive devaluations
and resisting all forms of protectionism. The prompt
responses have served as important policy guidance to
the global economy.
We achieved landmark results in enhancing the
structural reform agenda. Structural reform is the
fundamental way to achieve strong, sustainable and
balanced growth. This year, for the first time, the G20
conducted a top-level design of the structural reform
agenda. We have identified nine priority areas of
structural reforms and developed 48 guiding principles.
We also agreed upon common core indicators to help
assess our efforts and progress on structural reform.
This demonstrates our faith in addressing both the
symptoms and root causes to foster growth. It will
help increase the synergy among G20 members in
implementing structural reforms, maximise their
positive spillover effects, and further enhance the
vitality and sustainability of the global economy.
We took a big step forward in boosting
infrastructure investment. Infrastructure investment
has great significance in boosting global demand
and lifting medium- to long-term growth. Called
upon by the G20, 11 major multilateral development
banks announced their quantitative ambitions
for high-quality infrastructure projects. We also
launched the Global Infrastructure Connectivity
Alliance Initiative, which will enhance the synergies
and coordination among the existing regional and
60 G20 China: The Hangzhou Summit • September 2016 G7G20.com