G20: No breakthrough on foreign exchange Friday, 12 November 2010 05:19

Seoul: The G20 Summit, under the theme, “Shared growth, beyond crisis” opened here yesterday with deputy ministers negotiating for their respective countries failing to reach agreement on the key issues of foreign exchange and current account imbalances.

G20 spokesperson Kim Yoon Kyung announced at a press briefing that the participants involved “have not yet been able to find a middle ground” because of “considerable differences”

However, progress was made on other issues on the G20 Summit agenda.

“Other than the framework, we have made good progress and regarding the framework, apart from the foreign exchange and the current account issue, there has been progress,” Kim said.

The Summit is expected to finalise discussions today on major financial reforms such as a new bank capital and liquidity framework and the strengthening of regulation and supervision of SIFIs.

Ho-young Ahn, the South Korean Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade and Ambassador at Large for G20, said in a press briefing that the issue of development had also been put on the agenda for the Summit because they were not fully satisfied with how the issue was being pursued in the international community.

“If development goals could be pursued in a more sustainable manner, then developing countries should be assisted in a meaningful manner with respect to how to develop their own economies,” Ahn said.

Ahn further explained that since the G20 leaders have agreed during the Pittsburgh Summit that G20 is going to be a premier forum for international economic cooperation, then the larger international economic community, other than the G20 member countries, should also be taken into account.

Today’s plenary meetings will start with the discussion on the Global Economy and Framework followed by a second plenary session on IFIs Reforms and a photo session. The third session will tackle the issue of development and financial inclusion while there will be a working lunch to discuss trade, climate change and green growth. In the afternoon, the issue of financial regulatory reform will be taken up in the fourth plenary session while energy, anti-corruption and the Seoul G20 Business Summit, which concluded yesterday with recommendations from world business leaders.

The final plenary session will end with the declaration of the G20 Seoul Summit Communiqué.

The Peninsula