Korea Acts as Bridge Between Developed and Developing Nations

Development issues and global financial safety nets to be among agenda items of the G20 Seoul Summit

Korea wants to take up development issues and global financial safety nets as the major agenda items of the G20 Seoul Summit, to be held Nov. 11-12. The upcoming summit will be the fifth leaders’ summit and the first in an emerging country, reflecting shifts in the global economic balance and a growing understanding of the interdependence of countries and regions in the international financial system.
True to the fall meeting’s catchphrase, “Shared Growth Beyond Crisis,” Korea, the Chair of the G20 Seoul Summit, is striving to serve as a bridge between developed and developing countries by having the G20 Seoul Summit adopt the so-called Korea Initiative.
“As far as development issues are concerned, Korea has its own profound experiences and expertise and wants to share them with developing countries,” said Kwon Haeryong, director-general in charge of trade/international cooperation at the Presidential Committee for the G20 Summit.
In reality, rising from the ashes of the Korean War a half century ago, Korea is now an exemplary nation that has made tremendous economic strides in a short period of time and overcome the Asian financial crisis of the late 1990s and the global financial crisis of the late 2000s.
According to the communique the G20 global leaders issued following the Toronto Summit on June 26-27, 2010, “Narrowing the development gap and reducing poverty are integral to our broader objective of achieving strong, sustainable and balanced growth and ensuring a more robust and resilient global economy for all. In this regard, we agree to establish a Working Group on Development and mandate it to elaborate, consistent with the G20’s focus on measures to promote economic growth and resilience, a development agenda and multi-year action plans to be adopted at the Seoul Summit.”
Korea is also interested in fostering renewed discussions on development issues, regarding them as essential to rebalancing the global economy and to ensuring that the Framework can operate as envisioned. Broadly interpreted, the definition of global rebalancing encompasses more than macroeconomic imbalances. It also includes addressing gaps in income and development.
The G20 leaders thus collectively recognized that narrowing the development gap and reducing poverty are integral to our broader objectives to achieve strong, sustainable and balanced growth, as well as to ensure a more robust and resilient global economy. In Toronto, the G20 leaders agreed to establish a Working Group on Development. This Working Group was tasked with exploring measures to promote economic growth and resilience, and outlining a development agenda and multi-year action plans to be adopted at the Seoul Summit.
This past June and September, Korea and South Africa co-chaired high-level G20 Development Working Group meetings to facilitate the formulation of multi-year action plans. The ultimate outcomes of these meetings, reported to the Sherpas, will be put to the leaders of the G20 for their consideration and endorsement.
In doing so, Korea acts as a bridge between the advanced, emerging and developing worlds by fully engaging all relevant stakeholders with a focus on the development needs of low-income countries (LICs). Korea also adds new perspectives to the discussions, drawing on its own recent memories of successful development.
As part of its efforts to collect views on development issues from G20 non-member countries, Korea has been engaged in brisk outreach activities on all continents around the world. G20 ambassadors-at-large have been dispatched to such regions as Egypt, Central Asia and Africa and such international organizations as the United Nations and the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP) to explain development issues and collect views.
Nine pillars of the multi-year action plans ― infrastructure, human resources development, export, investment, food security, growth resilience, FDI, tax administration and knowledge sharing ― have been set as proposed by the Korean side, Kwon said. “Korea’s proposal of development agenda items and its robust outreach activities have received a strong showing from non G20-member countries,” he said.
GLOBAL FINANCIAL SAFETY NETS ― With a view toward addressing the needs of the emerging and developing world as part of the effort to support sustainable growth globally, Korea is advocating strengthening global financial safety nets to assist countries to deal with capital volatility. Without reliable financial safety nets, many emerging and developing countries have had to rely on self-insurance, giving them greater impetus to accumulate large foreign reserves. That trend is likely to continue in the wake of the 2008-2009 crisis, when countries with large reserves fared better than countries with smaller reserves. In Korea’s view, a credible global financial safety net would reduce pressure on governments to continue adding to those reserves.
G20 BIZ SUMMIT ― More than 100 business leaders from G20 countries will assemble in Seoul on Nov. 10-11 to attend the G20 Business Summit ahead of the G20 Seoul Summit.
About the background of the convening of the G20 Business Summit, Kwon said, “G20 governments have so far played leading roles in turning around the sluggish global economy by implementing massive packages of stimulus steps, but the private sector’s active participation in the global economic recovery, particularly investments, are now essential.”
Kwon said on Oct. 19 that 112 CEOs from world-class corporations in Korea and abroad have confirmed their participation in the event, the largest such gathering related to the G20 summits. Previous summits held similar CEOs’ meetings in which heads of economic organizations from G20 countries primarily attended. The G20 Business Summit, to be held under theme “The Role of Business for Sustainable and Balanced Growth,” may be a fixture to the G20 Summit as France, the chair of the next G20 Summit, is to follow suit, he said.
The confirmed participants include 15 renowned businessmen from South Korea, including Samsung Chairman Lee Kun-hee, Hyungdai Motors Chairman Chung Mong-koo, SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won and LG Group Chairman Koo Bon-moo, as well as CEOs of the companies on the Fortune Global Top 500 Companies’ list. The total breaks down to 86 participants from G20 member countries, including 12 participants from the United States, 11 from France, eight from Japan, and seven from China. The remaining 26 invitees are from non-G20 countries such as Spain and the Netherlands. Combined sales accumulated by the companies of the 112 confirmed participants amounts to $4 trillion, or 4.8 times the GDP of Korea.
In addition to heads of government from the 20 member countries, central bankers and finance ministers, the heads of key international institutions, including the United Nations, the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and the Financial Stability Board, will participate in the meetings on Nov. 11-12. Member countries include the G8 developed economies along with emerging economies such as the Republic of Korea. Together, the members of the G20 represent over 85 percent of the world economy.
Roundtable meetings on four sectors ― trade & investment, finance, green growth and corporate social responsibility ― will take place during the Plenary Session of the G20 Business Summit on Nov. 10.
The core message of the final versions of reports by the G20 Business Summit’s 12 working groups will be delivered directly to G20 leaders during the roundtable talks.
Through the summits held to date in Washington D.C., Pittsburgh and London, the G20 averted economic catastrophe. In Pittsburgh, the G20 leaders agreed that, going forward, the G20 would be the premier forum for international economic cooperation, ushering in a new system of global economic governance. In Seoul this November, the leaders will take that mandate forward, paving the way for future sustainable and balanced growth.
Within the larger agenda, the leaders will continue to work to build a lasting system of cooperation ― a framework ― and to reform international financial organizations and financial regulations. At the Seoul Summit, the G20 will build on past agreements while introducing new agenda items that support the same fundamental goals. nw

Kwon Haeryong, director-general in charge of trade/international cooperation at the Presidential Committee for the G20 Summit, gestures during an interview with NewsWorld while explaining his committee’s preparations on the hosting of the G20 Summit.