In September 2009, the G20 as the main forum for international economic cooperation decided to hold an annual summit. This is a decision that recognizes the role that the G20 played in the global economic recovery from the 2008 international financial crisis, and gives the G20 legitimacy to carry out its role as the premier forum for international economic cooperation.
At the Pittsburgh Summit, the Republic of Korea (ROK) was announced as the first non-G8 Asian country to host the G20 Summit in November 2010.
The Korean government established the 'Presidential Committee for the G20 Summit' to enhance its ability to effectively organize pan-government efforts directed at the success of the summit. The government also established a system for government agencies such as the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, the Ministry of Strategy and Finance, the Financial Services Commission and other relevant agencies to provide support for the Committee's work.
In January 2010, President Lee Myung-bak attended the World Economic Forum held in Davos, Switzerland and stated that Korea would focus on implementing good past agreements, introducing new agenda items such as development and a global financial safety net, and securing international support. through proactive outreach activities towards non-G20 countries and international organizations as a way to ensure the success of the G20 Seoul Summit.
In accordance with the system established by the Government of Korea for the success of the Summit, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Commerce supports the G20 Summit Presidential Committee in their efforts to advance the summit agenda. To gain support from the international community, non-G20 countries and international organizations for the Seoul G20 Summit, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs held various summit-level meetings and foreign minister-level dialogues to carry out various diplomatic efforts at both the bilateral and multilateral levels.
Toronto G20 Summit
Due to the successful handling of the global financial crisis by the G20, the expectations of the international community for the G20 are getting stronger. Thus, the G20 must continue and strengthen its role by resolving other important international issues outside of crisis management in the post-crisis era. The Korean government came to the conclusion that the G20 needed to prove its capability and efficiency as a premier forum for international economic cooperation, and decided to offer full diplomatic support for the success of the Toronto Summit held before the Seoul Summit.
The Korean government believes that while the Toronto Summit and the Seoul Summit are closely linked, their success will contribute to achieving strong, sustainable and balanced global economic growth and the strengthening of the G20 and its foundation for efficient operation. Korea, for its part, worked closely with Canada on listing agenda items, while working to lead non-G20 countries and regional organizations to understand and support the G20 process.
In the first APEC Senior Officials' Meeting (SOM) held in Hiroshima, Japan on 22-23 February 2010, Canada and Korea had the opportunity to explain preparations aimed at developing the G20 agenda. Canada made a presentation on priority tasks to be discussed at the Toronto Summit, and Korea shared its plans for the Seoul Summit, namely to i) continue implementing the previous G20 agreements including a strong, sustainable, and balanced growth framework, ii) introduce new issues including a global financial safety net, and iii) strengthening relations with non-G20 countries to reflect their interest in the G20 process.
When Canada hosted a briefing session for Asian countries in Hanoi, Vietnam on April 26, 2010, Korea presented its priority tasks for the Seoul Summit and engaged in close consultation with Canada regarding the scope of the invitation of non-G20 countries and the issues another key issue. including trade.
At the Toronto Summit held on 26-27 June 2010, G20 leaders discussed various pending global economic issues including fiscal consolidation, financial taxation, and agreed to establish a framework through a joint assessment based on their political will. By deciding to extend the term of the policy halt, first suggested by President Lee Myung-bak at the first Washington summit, by three years to the end of 2013, the leaders strengthened the foundations of free trade.
President Lee took on a leading role as consensus maker as chairman of the G20. In particular, he contributed to crafting a message of compromise between fiscal consolidation and stimulus measures for economic recovery, led discussions on rationalizing fuel subsidies, and laid a good foundation for discussion of the new agenda for the Seoul summit.
The Toronto summit, which paved the way for the Seoul summit, resulted in a meaningful agreement. However, no final agreement was made on some key agenda items such as global imbalances, IMF quota and governance reforms, financial regulation reforms etc. On the other hand, Korea was able to build a basis for discussion of the new Seoul summit agenda items including development and global financial safety nets by formally introducing them at the top level.
G20 Seoul Summit
The G20 Seoul Summit was held on 11-12 November 2010. The G20 countries and invited participants including five countries and seven international organizations attended the Summit. About 6,000 government delegates and 4,000 people from the media community visited Korea, while 120 CEOs from global companies attended the Business Summit. The G20 Seoul Summit is indeed the biggest event in Korean history.
The G20 Seoul Summit was a resounding success in terms of agenda, protocol and management. Key outcomes of the G20 Seoul Summit included agreements such as 'a framework for strong, sustainable, and balanced growth', 'reform of IMF quotas and adjustment of the composition of the Executive Board', 'Basel III agreement and SIFI (Systemically Important Financial Institutions) solutions', and 'reaffirms commitment to DDA'. Considering that 'currency conflicts' were a topic of international interest at the time, a consensus was reached to develop an indicative set of guidelines. The policy orientation was agreed to shift to a more market-based exchange rate that reflects economic fundamentals, as well as the formation of a more flexible exchange rate which is considered a significant result. This would not have been possible without G20 leaders' strong mutual understanding of the spirit of G20 international cooperation - an agreement to prevent the global economy from turning to protectionism and seek solutions through international coordination.
In connection with the reform of international financial organizations and financial regulatory measures, the Seoul Summit reached an agreement on shifting the 6% quota to developing and developing countries, which IMF Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn called the most significant agreement in history ever achieved since the Financial G20 Meeting of Central Bank Ministers and Governors (22-23 October 2010, Gyeongju). By agreeing to adjust the composition of the members of the Executive Board and adopting Basel III, the leaders at the Seoul summit were able to reach agreement on issues that had not been agreed upon for a long time.
Furthermore, by adopting the 'Seoul Development Consensus for Shared Growth' and the 'Multi-Year Action Plan for Development', the Seoul Summit laid the foundation for developing countries to achieve sustainable growth through capacity building.
With respect to the global financial safety net, the Summit produced tangible results on the creation of a preemptive response system for future financial crises by upgrading existing flexible credit lines and introducing preventative credit lines and multinational flexible credit lines. This result is of great interest to developing and developing countries, the majority in the international community, which will help Korea play a bridging role between non-G20 countries and G20 member countries, and lay the institutional and academic foundation to enhance the country's legitimacy. G20 in the future.
The Seoul Summit could not have produced such tangible results in the prime interests of emerging and developing economies without the efforts of the Korean Government to engage in ongoing consultations with non-G20 countries on various aspects. These consultations are mostly carried out by Ambassadors to the G20 who visit Asia, Africa, America and Europe for briefing sessions with key international organizations such as the ILO (International Labor Organization) and the United Nations (United Nations), to gather the general opinion of the international community and explain to them details about the preparatory work directed to the Seoul summit.
G20 Los Cabos Summit
The G20 Leaders Summit was held in Los Cabos, Mexico, on 18-19 June 2012 and was held during the first half of the year unlike previous summits because of the Mexican presidential election. While uncertainty in the world economy has increased due to the eurozone fiscal crisis, leaders mainly discussed ways to resolve the eurozone fiscal crisis.
Eurozone leaders strengthened their willingness to take all necessary measures to stabilize the eurozone and resolve the current crisis through structural reforms, greater fiscal and economic integration, and adjustments to strengthen competitiveness in deficit countries. As a result, the leaders of the summit adopted the "Los Cabos Action Plan for Growth and Jobs" and stated that all G20 members should calibrate the pace of fiscal consolidation and promote special coordination measures for global economic growth.
President Lee Myung-bak, drawing on Korea's successful recovery experience from the 1997 Asian crisis, emphasized that countries involved in the European debt crisis must decisively reform their systems and the euro zone must make greater efforts to reform its flawed system.
In this regard, the leaders agreed to increase the resources available to the IMF by US$456 billion to strengthen global capacity to overcome crises, and Korea pledged to contribute US$15 billion. The important outcome of the G20 Los Cabos Summit was to increase the IMF's capacity to overcome the global economic crisis by increasing IMF resources enhanced by the participation of developing economies such as China, India, Russia, Brazil and Mexico. In addition, the G20 leaders conveyed a clear message to condemn all forms of protectionist actions and agreed to reaffirm their commitment to cessation by 2014 regarding protectionist measures.
President Lee said that the adoption of protectionism during such a difficult world economic period would likely put the world into a deeper recession. With many leaders expressing their sympathy with his remarks, he also wooed several countries with dissenting views and contributed to the reaffirmation of a ceasefire commitment by 2014.
Significant progress was also made regarding the development agenda introduced by Korea during the Seoul Summit. During the Summit, the leaders agreed to discuss how to raise funds for expanding investment in infrastructure as a basis for development for developing countries and implementing "inclusive green growth" policies to support green growth policies in developing countries.
In May, one month before the G20 summit, President Lee Myung-bak, with Mexican President Felipe Calderon Hinojosa, contributed to Germany's Financial Times, in which the two leaders expressed their desire to exert their best efforts to stabilize the world economy and to overcome the problems that caused by climate change. Seeing "green growth" as the key to solving economic and environmental problems, leaders reiterated their desire to develop optimal strategies for implementing "green growth" policies.
The Republic of Korea contributed to the establishment of the G20 agreement by participating in IMF funding, reaffirming the need to take bold structural and fundamental reform measures, and taking the initiative to extend the termination agreement and inclusive green growth policy.
Subsequently, President Lee held a bilateral meeting with President Felipe Calderon and exchanged views on strengthening relations between the Republic of Korea and Mexico.
The G20 summit has been held seven times and has established itself as the premier forum for economic cooperation. The G20 summit is expected to exert increased influence as the global recovery continues to face a number of challenges, which require cooperation between countries.
The government of the Republic of Korea will actively participate in the G20 Summit to strengthen its global status and contribute to reviving the world economy, building infrastructure that supports Korea's sustainable growth.
G20 Saint Petersburg Summit
The G20 Leaders Summit was held in Saint Petersburg, Russia on September 5-6, 2013. Amid signs of recovery in the world economy, G20 leaders primarily focused on strengthening growth and job creation, while the 2012 G20 Los Cabos Summit concentrated on crisis response European debt. The leaders agreed on a number of specific steps, namely strengthening the global economy through the G20 framework, addressing cross-border tax avoidance, expanding trade, creating more jobs and securing inclusive growth, and promoting global development cooperation. Therefore, the summit resulted in the adoption of the declaration of the G20 leaders and accompanying documents from the summit.
The G20 developed nations made a commitment to work together to ensure that future monetary policy changes are carefully calibrated and clearly communicated. The leaders reiterated the importance of communication between the IMF and Regional Financing Arrangements (RFA), as well as dialogue between RFAs, to strengthen the role of RFA. In this regard, the leaders asked the G20 finance ministers to follow the developments and progress in the communication.
In addition, the leaders agreed to put forward a medium-term fiscal strategy after 2016 aimed at increasing fiscal prudence. In particular, they also agreed to secure tax collection by addressing tax evasion and implementing automated exchanges of information. In line with these efforts, they pledge to be united in their determination to promote more and better jobs through coordinated and integrated measures.
Meanwhile, the leaders supported the 'Saint Petersburg Development Outlook' on strengthening the global partnership in development assistance, and reaffirmed the importance of regular monitoring of its implementation to magnify fruitful results. In addition, they agreed to extend their 'standstill commitment' until 2016.
In addition, major international political issues were discussed at the G20 Summit for the first time. The first G20 Leaders Summit was held in response to the global financial crisis in 2008 and since then has mainly discussed matters related to the international financial system. However, in 2013, the Syrian civil war and the Ghouta chemical attack were discussed at the suggestion of the Chairman, Russian President Vladimir Putin, resulting in the announcement of a US-led Statement signed by 12 countries including the ROK.
Based on its experience in successfully hosting the 2010 G20 Seoul Summit, Korea made a significant contribution to bringing about agreement on the main agenda by demonstrating its unique leadership in bridging developed and developing economies.
At the session with the theme "Global Economic Growth", President Park Geun-hye presided over the settlement of differences between developed and developing countries over the issue of developed countries' exit strategies. The President emphasized the shared sense of community in today's interconnected global economy that the stimulus exit strategy may have negative impacts on developing countries such as instability if the resulting financial situation in developing countries is not considered.
In addition, President Park contributed to the extension of the cessation commitment through 2016 by convincing some developing countries who were skeptical of the extension that it was necessary to revitalize the global economy.
During the “Job Creation and Investment” session, President Park delivered a keynote address at the request of the Chair and proposed the visions of a 'creative economy' and a 'disciplined market economy' as new approaches to creating jobs and driving inclusive growth. Many leaders shared remarks and expressed their support.
The President also called for strong G20 leadership to regain the trust of the international community by faithfully carrying out its commitments. In particular, the President emphasized the need to strengthen the monitoring system for the implementation of G20 commitments, such as those carried out on stopping trade protectionism and aid for developing countries.
In addition, President Park held a summit meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Italian Prime Minister Enrico Letta and Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev, and exchanged views on areas where the two sides could work together.
The G20 summit, which first brought together 20 leaders in 2008 to address the financial crisis following the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers, has been held eight times so far, and leaders continue to reaffirm the G20's role as the ultimate leader. international economic cooperation forum.
The government of the Republic of Korea plans to continue to exert its best efforts to strengthen its global status by actively participating in G20 summits and showing leadership in discussing key agenda items. Such efforts will contribute not only to creating a stable global economic environment, but also to laying the foundation for Korea's sustainable growth.
G20 Brisbane Summit
G20 Brisbane Summit 2014 The 9th G20 Summit was held in Brisbane, Australia from 15-16 November 2014. G20 leaders acknowledged that, despite some positive signs, the global recovery remains slow and is not providing much needed jobs. Therefore, they focused their discussion on finding ways to drive global growth and job creation.
Consider the three goals of the Summit ? “to lift growth and create jobs”, “to build a stronger and more resilient global economy” and “to strengthen global institutions” – the leaders discussed ways to strengthen policy coordination in areas such as growth strategy, job creation, investment, trade, development, finance, taxes, energy and climate change.
As a result of these intensive discussions, the G20 Leaders' Declaration and its twelve annexes were adopted. In addition, taking into account the serious impact of the Ebola virus, the leaders also adopted the G20 Leaders' Brisbane Statement on Ebola to indicate the G20's will to tackle the Ebola problem.
The most notable outcome of the summit was the implementation of the G20 Comprehensive Growth Strategy, which includes the growth strategies of G20 members in trade, investment, employment and competition. If the strategy is fully implemented, the combined GDP of G20 members is expected to grow by 2.1% from the current trajectory in 2018.
G20 leaders also adopted the Global Infrastructure Initiative, a multi-year program to promote quality infrastructure investment, and agreed to establish a Global Infrastructure Center with a four-year mandate to implement the Initiative.
Meanwhile, to increase employment, the leaders agreed to reduce the gender gap in the labor force participation rate by 25% by 2025, taking into account domestic conditions.
Development has been one of the core issues for G20 discussions since the G20 Seoul Summit in 2010. To help low-income countries mobilize domestic resources and support their financial inclusion, G20 leaders agreed to take steps to reduce average costs. global for remittance with 5%. Furthermore, the leaders expressed their strong support for the successful negotiation of the post-2015 development agenda at the United Nations.
To build a stronger and more resilient global economy, the leaders agreed to continue pushing for financial regulatory reforms such as the delivery of the shadow banking framework. On the tax issue, they recognize that great progress has been made in the G20/OECD Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) Action Plan, whose aim is to modernize international tax regulations.
The G20 leaders also reiterated their commitment to enhance cooperation in trade, finance and energy. They demonstrated their desire to fight protectionism, strengthen the multilateral trading system and improve the international financial system by reforming the IMF. They also agreed to adopt the G20 Principles on Energy Collaboration, which reflect the G20's desire to improve international energy markets and increase energy efficiency.
Korea made a constructive contribution to advancing the discussion on key agenda items. On the growth strategy, President Park Geun-hye outlined Korea's efforts for structural reforms including the 3-year Economic Innovation Plan. He highlighted the importance of the Creative Economy as an engine of new economic growth and offered to share relevant experiences with other G20 members.
President Park also explained in detail Korea's efforts for regulatory reform. Furthermore, he suggested that relevant international organizations conduct research on the status of reforms in service industries that are lagging behind in regulatory reform. In addition, President Park pointed out the potential risks that may be posed by the monetary policies of developed countries and emphasized that each country's monetary policies must be carefully calibrated and communicated clearly.
President Park reiterated the importance of development as a G20 agenda and suggested focusing on development issues at next year's G20 summit, which will be held under the Turkish Presidency. He also encouraged G20 members to help developing countries to participate in global value chains (GVC).
President Park also urged the G20 to contribute to the Green Climate Fund (GCF), an international organization that aims to help developing countries build capacity to tackle climate change.
In addition, President Park held bilateral meetings with Crown Prince Salman of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and exchanged views on various issues of mutual interest. Also, President Park and Prime Minister John Key of New Zealand officially announced the conclusion of the Korea-New Zealand FTA.
Since the first G20 summit was held in 2008 to address the financial crisis following the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers, eight summits have been held. As the premier forum for international economic cooperation, the G20 Summits have served as an excellent venue for discussing major global economic issues.
The Korean government will continue to do its best to elevate Korea's status on the global stage by actively participating in G20 summits and taking the lead in discussing key agenda items. Such efforts will contribute not only to creating a stable global economic environment but also lay the foundation for Korea's sustainable growth.