As the two-day parleys on economic issues saw participation of nearly 100 delegates from G20 member countries, India said the presence of the delegations, invitees and international organisations in Chandigarh “demonstrated the strong commitment” of the global community to support India’s G20 Presidency
The maiden meeting of the G-20 international financial architecture working group under India’s Presidency concluded here on Tuesday with India underlining the need for more global cooperation to ensure economic stability so that every nation enjoys the fruits of sustainable growth.
As the two-day parleys on economic issues saw participation of nearly 100 delegates from G20 member countries, India said the presence of the delegations, invitees and international organisations in Chandigarh “demonstrated the strong commitment” of the global community to support India’s G20 Presidency.
The discussions held in Chandigarh will form the basis for the first G-20 finance ministers and Central bank governors’ meeting under the Indian Presidency to be held on February 24-25 in Bengaluru.
The meeting was co-chaired by France and South Korea and the Indian Presidency was represented by the department of economic affairs (ministry of finance) and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).
“The first and the foremost point which India raised in the meeting is that at the core of India’s G 20 Presidency is that we need more global and international cooperation to ensure economic stability so that everybody enjoys the fruits of sustainable growth,” Indian officials from the Union ministry of finance said in a news conference. According to Parveen Kumar, director (ministry of finance), the member countries spoke on various issues, including how some people are affected by capital outflow and how policies of some countries affect the capital outflow.
He said there is a wide variety of spectrum available around the table. “…but the whole idea is to arrive at some sort of agreement where people and countries agree…and we can all act on this so that the overall global financial stability is maintained. That is the core purpose of this group and this is how it operates…,” said Kumar.
The international financial architecture working group is dedicated to discussing solutions to vulnerabilities in the international financial system, enhancing financing for development and strengthening the international financial architecture.
The views of G20 members on the agenda were sought, a panel discussion was also organised on the sidelines of the meeting on “Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs)– Opportunities and Challenges’.
Anu P Mathai, adviser (department of economic affairs), said the closed-door discussions revolved around various issues, including strengthening and reforming multilateral development banks (MDBs). She said the ways to address implementation challenges associated with the G20 common framework for debt treatments beyond debt service suspension initiative given the “worsening debt situation” were also discussed.
The focus of the group in 2023 is to support global action for enhancing financing for development and strengthening international financial institutions to support vulnerable countries to deal with challenges posed by trans-boundary challenges like pandemic and climate change.
“The global debt continues to be an important agenda as the debt situation worsens,” said Mathai, pointing out that the broad agenda was discussed in this group and that the work plan for the whole year has been agreed by the group.
“In the first meeting, agenda is set…the agenda which the Presidency has prepared, the participants express their views on the topics identified, the members agreed with the agenda and during the year, discussions will revolve around this agenda leading to final outcome,” said Baldeo Purushartha, joint secretary (ministry of finance) while responding to a question.
The meeting assumes significance as the G-20, comprising 19 countries and European Union, represents about 85% of the global GDP, over 75% of the global trade, and about two-thirds of the world population.
India holds the Presidency of the G-20 from December 1, 2022 to November 30, 2023.
The G20 is the premier forum for international economic cooperation and it plays an important role in shaping and strengthening global architecture and governance on all major international economic issues.
