China G20::The B20 principal recommendations are as follows:
Break a
new path for global economic growth by:
1. Implementing programs such as the SMART innovation initiative to encourage entrepreneurship and innovation.
2. Accelerating
the pipeline of high-quality bankable projects and promoting the creation of financial instruments to facilitate infrastructure
investment.
3.
Enhancing the catalytic role of multilateral development banks and institutions in enabling private-sector infrastructure
investment.
4.
Facilitating the development of green financing and investment markets.
5. Stimulating financial inclusion by embracing digital technology
innovation.
Develop
more effective and efficient global economic and financial governance by:
6. Optimizing global financial regulations to support
growth.
7.
Facilitating the access of small-and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to bank financing and alternative funding.
8. Adopting consistent and aligned
tax policies to drive inclusive growth.
9. Strengthening intergovernmental cooperation against corruption, and supporting the building of capacity
for stronger anti-corruption compliance.
10. Promoting a more transparent environment for business to bolster competition.
Encourage robust international
trade and investment by:
11. Strengthening the multilateral trading system and eliminating new protectionist measures while rolling
back existing measures to enable trade growth.
12. Ratifying the trade Facilitation Agreement (TFA) by the end of 2016 and committing
to rapid implementation.
13. Endorsing the concept of the Electronic World Trade Platform (eWTP) to incubate cross-border electronic
trade (e-trade) rules and aid e-trade development.
14. Developing coordinated capacity-building and certification programs to ease the inclusion
of SMEs into global value chains.
15. Enhancing the global investment policy environment in order to boost investment.
Promote inclusive and interconnected
development by:
16. Removing structural barriers to increase youth employment, and implementing initiatives to raise the participation
rate of women in the labor force.
17. Enhancing policies to assess and reduce skill mismatches and capability gaps in the workforce.
18. Lowering compliance
costs and improving access to public procurement markets in order to support SME growth.
19. Enabling and promoting innovative technologies
and asset management best-practices that support whole-project life-cycle productivity of infrastructure projects.
20. Strengthening or establishing
national, regional and global initiatives to enhance infrastructure interconnectivity.
In his remarks Yu paid particular attention
to two of those recommendations:
One, the G20 SMART innovation initiative, focuses on innovative growth, a major topic at the G20 Hangzhou
Summit. The SMART initiative aims to provide a major platform to facilitate public-private collaboration and the sharing of
knowledge, resources and technologies in order to promote technological innovation to accelerate global economic development
and employment. The SMART initiative would strengthen cultural and educational exchanges among G20 countries, develop multilateral
long-term visa and fast-track visa clearance for innovators and entrepreneurs within G20 countries, and establish G20 funds
to promote technological innovation, build a G20 platform for the sharing of cutting-edge technologies as well as a G20 brain
platform in order to drive economic growth.
The other is the eWTP initiative, which aims to encourage robust international trade and
investment, another key topic at the G20 Hangzhou Summit. The initiative has been led by the Alibaba Group, the Chair of the
B20 SME Development Taskforce. The B20 has recommended that the G20 endorses the concept of eWTP for public-private dialogue
to incubate cross-border e-trade rules and foster a more effective and efficient policy and business environment for cross-border
e-trade development. Following that endorsement, the B20 proposes to formally establish the eWTP as an open, transparent,
not-for-profit platform. It will cooperate with international organizations such as the World Trade Organization to prioritize
e-trade development needs and enhance e-trade articles in the TFA; and expediting the use of e-trade and the digital economy
through the construction of e-trade infrastructure and the adoption of best practices – such as building cross-border
e-trade experiment zones – to address outstanding issues facing SME, especially in developing countries.
According to Yu, the B20 recommendations
embody the concepts of openness, transparency and inclusiveness. The recommendations target the priority issues of the world
economy and are geared towards strong, sustainable and balanced growth of the world economy. They reflect the common concerns
of the international business community and have received wide support. The international business communities believe that
China, as a responsible major country, has performed its leading and accountable role in the preparatory process of 2016 B20
with the principles of consensus building and innovation building on continuity.
Yu mentioned that at the Third G20 Sherpa Meeting in
late June, the G20 Trade Ministers Meeting, the G20 Labor and Employment Ministers Meeting and the G20 Finance Ministers and
Central Bank Governors Meeting held in July, G20 members offered high praise for the content of the B20 policy paper as well
as the B20’s positive contributions, hailing its recommendations for their relevancy and value to the G20 in meeting
its political targets.
The B20 recommendations are also impressive with their many “Chinese marks”. The China-led initiatives,
such as the eWTP initiative, the G20 SMART innovation initiative, the Global Infrastructure Connectivity Alliance initiative
and the initiative of improving the global investment-policy environment, are of great significance to world economic recovery
and thus have won extensive support from international business communities. Representatives from the Chinese business community
took an active part in drafting the policy paper – 156 Chinese enterprises participated in the B20 taskforces, 30 percent
of the total. Among them, 15 Chinese entrepreneurs served as chairs and co-chairs of the B20 taskforces, including Chairman
of Sinochem Group Frank Ning, President of China Life Insurance (Group) Company Miao Jianmin, Chairman of China National Machinery
Industry Corporation Ren Hongbin, Executive Chairman of Alibaba Group Jack Ma, and Chairman & CEO of Baidu Li Yanhong.
They led discussions, exemplifying Chinese entrepreneurs’ talent in making international economic and trade rules and
developing global economic governance.
The B20 recommendations, consistent with the G20’s focus, are practicable, specific and actionable
responses to today’s challenges to sustainable global economic growth, creation of quality jobs and inclusiveness.
“We believe
the above-mentioned policy recommendations will be conducive to the G20’s efforts in fostering a good environment for
facilitating trade and investment, developing business models and creating jobs.” said Yu. “All of this is critical
to achieving the G20’s objective of building an innovative, invigorated, interconnected and inclusive world economy
and to ensuring strong, sustainable and balanced growth.”
According to Yu, in the next stage the B20 will shift its focus to advocating
the policy recommendations among G20 countries’ business chambers and associations, major companies and international
organizations after providing them to G20 governments. Having more of the business community’s recommendations included
in the G20 Summit communiqué will contribute to building an innovative, invigorated, interconnected and inclusive world
economy.
The
B20, an important supporting component of the G20 mechanism, is a significant platform from which the international business
community can participate in global economic governance and boost global economic growth. Its mission is to put forward proposals
to boost world growth and global governance solutions on behalf of the business community, and its core work is to develop
a policy paper that garners the wisdom of the world business community for G20 leaders’ reference in decision making.
So far, the B20 has submitted to the G20 more than 400 policy recommendations in various fields, including reform of the financial
system, trade, investment, energy, infrastructure, employment, finance and anti-corruption. Many have been incorporated into
previous G20 communiqués and turned into important actions in promoting international economic cooperation and enhancing
global economic governance under the G20 framework.
