G20 supplants G8 as crisis-fighting forum. We are satisfied, for the moment I mean.
G20 to play lead in global economy coordination - U.S.
IMF reform seen giving emerging economies bigger voice
U.S. Treasury's Geithner sees support for rebalancing
PITTSBURGH, Sept 24 (Reuters) - Leaders of the Group of 20 rich and developing nations will turn their club into the main body for coordinating economic policy, reflecting the rise of new heavyweights like China, officials said on Thursday.
At a G20 summit to discuss ways of avoiding a repeat of the financial crisis, the leaders also agreed to give more voting power at the International Monetary Fund to countries that have long been under-represented at the global financial watchdog.
The two-day summit convened with the United States pressing its plan to build a more stable global economy in the face of the near meltdown of the financial system in 2008 which plunged the world into recession.
Giving the G20 the main role for coordinating economic policy would make it more important than the G7 and G8 groupings of the industrialized countries which have long dominated the world's economy.
Two years of financial market turmoil, which began in the rich world, have enhanced the economic role of fast-growing countries such as China and India.
"Today, leaders endorsed the G-20 as the premier forum for their international economic cooperation," the White House said in a statement after a summit dinner. "This decision brings to the table the countries needed to build a stronger, more balanced global economy, reform the financial system, and lift the lives of the poorest."
G20 AS STEERING COMMITTEE
Earlier, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said leaders would institutionalize the G20, which groups the major rich and developing countries, as the key economic steering committee.
"It's never really happened before. We've had the G8, we've had all these organizations. We've got this one chance to make a huge success of international economic cooperation," he said. Continued... |
