China to Further Promote Climate Change Cooperation and Poverty Reduction

Throughout 2016, 66 conferences related to G20 were and will be held in 20 Chinese cities. There are as many as 23 minister-level meetings. Since the end of May, four G20 ministerial meetings focusing on agriculture, energy, employment and trade have been held successively, along with outreach events, such as 2016 W20, T20, B20, Y20, L20 summits. Covering various fields and issues, these events have warmed up for the 2016 G20 Hangzhou Summit and will eventually encourage various parties to convert consensus into real actions.

Now, the theme and major topics proposed by China are widely supported. The structure and modules have already been in shape. Major events are settled and all venues are ready. Now, China is making the final preparation to make sure the summit is successful.

Inclusive Finance Contributes to a Sustainable and Inclusive Economic Growth

Recently, China submitted three documents to the G20 Hangzhou Summit for deliberation, which are the “Advanced Principles for G20 Digital Inclusive Finance”, the updated version of “G20 Inclusive Finance Indicator System” and “G20 SME Financing Plan Implementation Framework”. The first document includes eight principles and 66 action proposals, which is the first ever high-level guidance documents about inclusive finance by the international community. The second one adds a new index for the digital inclusive finance field. And the third one proposes to improve the SME credit system, encourage chattel mortgage financing and reform the SME bankruptcy system.

In an interview by People’s Daily, Zhao Xijun, the Deputy Dean of the School of Finance of Renmin University of China, said that the inclusive finance proposal fits the need of the current economic and financial development of the international community, which concerns both the G20 and non-G20 countries, and is consistent with the “inclusive” theme of the summit. The three documents are very representative, with some content derived from the development experiences of China. Digital inclusive finance is just a good example which fully reflects the “innovative” theme of the summit. Once approved, those documents will provide an important guidance for the development of global inclusive finance.

The concept of “inclusive finance” was proposed by the United Nations in 2005, which is universal access, at a reasonable cost, to a wide range of financial services, provided by a variety of sound and sustainable institutions. Inclusive finance strives to enhance access to financial services for both individuals including farmers and low-income urbanites and micro-, small and medium-sized enterprises.

Formulate and Implement the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda

In the first year of implementing 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda, the G20 Hangzhou Summit will focus on two firsts: one is to put the development issue as the major point of the global macroeconomic policy framework. The other first is to formulate an action plan for implementing 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda. China hopes to integrate the collective and individual efforts of countries to provide strong support for the UN Sustainable Development Agenda. With the participation of more developing countries, the 2016 Hangzhou summit becomes the most representative summit for developing countries in the history of G20. The international community has shown high regard for China’s long-term and strategic initiatives and actions, and expects the Hangzhou summit to take the lead in promoting and implementing the 2030 agenda, and make G20 act as a stage for global cooperation on sustainable growth.

Accelerate the Paris Agreement to Work

With China’s initiation and support from various parties, the G20 Sherpa Meeting held in April launched the first Presidency Statement on Climate Change in history. The statement promises that the Paris Agreement should be signed on April 22 or a later date, and that the domestic approval process should be completed as soon as possible. So far, most of the G20 countries have already signed the Pairs Agreement. China will accelerate the approval processes of related parties to put the agreement into force within a short time, and coordinate related parties to take action to contribute to global cooperation on climate change.

Source: www.China.com.cn