Leaders of the G5, the group of five emerging economies including China, India, South Africa, Brazil and Mexico, yesterday called for closer international cooperation in fighting against financial crisis, strengthening global economic governance and dealing with climate change.

Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, South African President Jacob Zuma, Mexican President Felipe Calderon and Chinese State Councillor Dai Bingguo attended the meeting, which was held parallel to the summit of the Group of Eight (G8) that started yesterday in the Italian city of L’Aquila, less than 100 days after the city was devastated by an earthquake.

President Hu cut short his visit to Italy and returned to Beijing Wednesday in response to unrest in Xinjiang. Hu asked Dai to represent him at the summit.

Dai said that the spreading financial crisis has generated severe influence in economic development and people’s lives in the world, with the developing countries as the biggest victims.

He said that economic development was fundamental for developing nations looking to solve a slew of problems and urged the international community to aid their growth.

Dai asked the five nations to make efforts in following fields:

• pushing international community to respect the developing countries’ right of developing economy;
• l pushing the reform of international economic, financial and trade system;
• l pushing developed countries to commit their promises of increasing aid, reducing debts, opening up markets and transferring technology;
• l pushing International Monetary Fund, World Bank and regional development banks to innovate their assisting measures so as to help developing nations keep financial stability and promote economic growth.

He called for closer cooperation of the five countries in fighting against financial crisis.

“We should push the Doha round of negotiation to make progress as soon as possible, oppose protectionism in any form and promote the economic recovery in the world,” he said.

Joint efforts should also be made to strengthen the global economic governance, according to Dai.

And the five countries should take positive measures to handle the challenge of climate change, said Dai.

“The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and Kyoto Protocol should be the main channel (for addressing climate change),” said Dai, adding that the principle of “common but differentiated responsibilities” must be observed.

He urged developed nations to make clear commitment of taking the lead in reducing gas emission, and provide technological, financial and capability-building support to developing nations.

“We must make joint efforts to make the Copenhagen Conference a success,” he noted.

The cooperation in non-traditional security sector is also highlighted in his speech, which covers food security, energy security, public health threat and natural disasters.

Mexican President Felipe Calderon said the emerging economies should play important roles in global issues and unite and strike consensus so as to help developing and less-developed countries better resolve the challenges of climate change and food security.

Brazilian President Lula said the G5 mechanism is the important platform for fighting against financial crisis. He called for strengthened international financial supervision and opposition to trade protectionism.

Indian Prime Minister Singh said that the deterioration of global economy had led to the severer poverty. Financial crisis is closely linked with the food security and energy security, he noted.

South African President Jacob Zuma said that African countries have suffered the most in the financial crisis.

Global measures must be taken to deal with financial crisis and developed countries should give more support to developing countries hit hardest by the crisis, according to Zuma.

The five nations also issued a joint statement after their meeting.

(Chinadaily.com.cn July 9, 2009)