Hu's speech at G20 draws positive int'l comments

China.org.cn, November 6, 2011

Chinese president Hu Jintao joins world leaders at the G20 summit in Cannes, France, which concluded on Friday. [China Daily]?

Chinese President Hu Jintao's speech at the sixth Group of Twenty (G-20) Summit has drawn positive comments from the international community, which praised the address for proposals for efforts to maintain world economic growth and financial stability.

In the speech delivered at the Nov. 3-4 summit in Cannes, France, Hu put forward a package of proposals urging the world's major economies to work together to promote growth and financial stability.

"It is imperative that we stand on a higher plane, transcend differences on specific issues, move beyond short-term considerations, and jointly seek ways to overcome the crisis and sustain development," Hu told the summit.

"At this critical moment, the G-20 must work to address the key problems, boost market confidence, defuse risks and meet challenges and promote global economic growth and financial stability," Hu said.

Reporting developments at the G-20 summit, the Reuters news agency quoted Hu as saying in the speech: "As the premier forum for international economic cooperation, the G20 must continue to demonstrate the spirit of standing together in times of adversity and pursuing win-win cooperation. At this critical moment, the G20 must work to address the key problems, boost market confidence, defuse risks and meet challenges, and promote global economic growth and financial stability."

Reuters also said Hu hopes to send a clear message of ensuring economic development and boosting stablity to the international community.

The French newspaper Le Figaro reported that Hu expressed confidence that Europe could overcome its debt crisis.

The website of Estado de Sao Paulo, Brazil's daily newspaper, quoted Hu as saying that China has made contributions to world economic growth, and that an imperative task for the G-20 summit was to maintain economic growth.

At the summit, Hu said that a priority for world leaders is to maintain robust economic growth, and called attention to the maintenance of domestic growth in China, which would benefit the world economy, the newspaper reported.

The newspaper also cited Hu as calling for advancing reform of the international monetary system in a steady manner, expanding the use of the Special Drawing Rights of the IMF, reforming the SDR currency basket, and building an international reserve currency system with stable value, rule-based issuance and manageable supply.

O Globo newspaper of Brazil reported that in the speech, Hu demanded that Western countries stop exerting pressures on emerging economic powers to compel them to appreciate their currencies.

The newspaper quoted Hu as saying: "To keep asking emerging markets to revalue their currencies and reduce exports will not lead to balanced growth. On the contrary, it would only plunge the global economy into a 'balanced recession' and make sustainable growth impossible."

In a related development, Robert Zoellick, president of the World Bank, issued a statement on the G-20 summit on Friday, saying: "The G-20 today presented an agenda to restore confidence in the global economy through its commitment to reinvigorate growth, create jobs, ensure financial stability, and make globalization more sustainable and inclusive."

The global economy is still very much at risk from faltering economies in developing countries, and the Eurozone deal has bought some time, and the challenge is how to use the time, Zoellick said.

"I believe it would be very useful if the G20 leaders can send a strong signal on follow-through after the Eurozone announcement so as to sustain and build confidence," Zoellick noted.