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Finance ministers and central bank governors of seven industrialized countries and major developing countries will gather in north China's Hebei Province next month for the group's seventh annual ministerial meeting, Chinese Deputy Finance Minister Li Yong said Sunday.
Li, who co-chaired the Group 20 Finance and Central Bank Deputies Meeting late last week in northeast China's port city of Dalian, said the major topics for the October conference have been set at the just-concluded meeting after careful discussion, which include current global economic situation, global financial system, development assistance and financing, and aging population and migration, and innovation of sustained growth.
The deputy minister told Xinhua the financial officials also listed review and reform of World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) as one of the major topics for the October ministerial meeting.
Founded in 1999, Group 20 include seven industrialized countries, the European Union, China, Russia, India, Australia, the Republic of Korea, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa and Turkey.
These countries account for 90 percent of the world's total gross domestic product (GDP), 80 percent of the global trade and two thirds of the world's population.
On current situation of global economy, the officials told the meeting that there are some uncertainties faced with the world economy in medium-and long terms, although the overall picture of the world economy, whose growth has slowed down somewhat, remains good in general. The uncertainties include soaring oil prices, growing trade protectionism, global imbalance of payment caused by huge fiscal and trade deficits in major industrialized countries, the issues of debt, poverty and reform in developing countries, said the deputy minister.
Officials at the meeting called on every member of the Group 20 to strive for and contribute to international cooperation to meeting the challenges through pragmatic cooperation.
They also said both the World Bank and IMF should continue to play their important role in safeguarding and promoting global economic stability and development, and members of G-20, or the major shareholders of the two financial organizations, should work out a roadmap and guidelines for the future reform of the organizations.
On the shortage of funding that remains the major problem for the world to meet the United Nations Millennium Development Goals by 2015, they called for more innovative ways for financing by developed countries, while calling on developing countries to improve their economic environment and governance and improve the effectiveness of development assistance.
Li said the officials also discussed the issue of innovation of sustained growth so that different countries will follow their own lines of development according to their actual conditions.
Experts with China's Ministry of Finance said G-20 serves as a platform for countries at different development stages to discuss major global economic issues.
(Xinhua News Agency September 5, 2005)
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