China to host G20 Summit in 2016
November 16, 2014, 6:11 am

Chinese President Xi Jinping at Session one of the G20 Leaders’ Summit in Brisbane on 15 November 2014 [G20, Australia]

Turkey holds the chair of G20 in 2015. With China being selected for the 2016 presidency, the G20 troika would now consist of Turkey, Australia and China.

This will facilitate a “more active involvement of emerging markets” in the G20 agenda, says a Chinese government advisor.

“China is rising steadily and trying to find its place in the new alignment of global power. The G20 is a major platform for dialogue and coordination between developed and developing big countries. China feels far more at ease at the G20 than in other forums like the G8,” writes He Fan, deputy director of the Institute of World Economics and Politics, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

“China needs G20 and G20 needs China. If and when China assumes the presidency, it should seek to strike a fine balance between the developed and developing countries, granting a credibility to the G20 it badly needs,” he added.

Earlier this year, China has rejected a World Bank report that suggests it might pass the United States this year to become the biggest economy measured by its currency’s purchasing power.

The IMF forecasts China’s economic growth this year at 7.5 per cent, nearly triple the 2.8 per cent outlook for the United States.

Both China and the US are also trying to broaden and deepen their influence in Africa, with China dominating the continent economically.

In August this year, Beijing hit back at US President Barack Obama after he took a dig at China at the 1st Africa-US Summit, as the world’s two biggest economies compete for strategic advantage in the continent.

The Washington-based International Monetary Fund has also lost most of its influence over the middle-income countries of the world, refusing to implement reforms to give developing countries a bigger say.

China and other emerging economies, including BRICS, have long protested against their limited voice at other multilateral development banks, including the World Bank, International Monetary Fund and Asian Development Bank.

China is grouped in the ‘Category II’ voting bloc at the World Bank while at the Asian Development Bank, China with a 5.5 per cent share is far outdone by America’s 15.7 per cent and Japan’s 15.6 per cent share.

In a landmark achievement, 21 Asian nations including China and India last month signed on a new infrastructure investment bank which would rival the World Bank.

The governments of Bangladesh, Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, China, India, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Mongolia, Myanmar, Nepal, Oman, Pakistan, Philippines, Uzbekistan, Qatar, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Uzbekistan, Vietnam signed on as founding members of the new Asia Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) in Beijing on Friday.

TBP