Forum lay the ground for joint communique by G20 leaders

Major proposals, including the blueprints for innovative growth and action plans to implement the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, were approved at the final preparatory meeting for the G20 Hangzhou summit, according to senior diplomats from member states on Saturday.

"All parties have principally agreed on the structure and elements of the leaders' communique to be signed at the summit," Li Baodong, China's vice-minister of foreign affairs. He was speaking at the closing session of the Third G20 Sherpa Meeting in Xiamen, Fujian province, the last before the leaders gather in Hangzhou, the capital of Zhejiang province, in September.

"After two days of in-depth discussions, the Sherpa meeting has made positive progress and realized the anticipated goals," Li said.

Representative "Sherpas" - a reference to people from the ethnic group who serve as guides and porters in the Himalayas - from G20 member states gathered in Fujian from Thursday to Saturday to finalize agreements for heads of states at the summit.

"We have about 90 percent of the agreements that should be included in the final communique," said Arvind Panagariya, a G20 Sherpa and vice-chairman of the National Institution for Transforming India.

Svetlana Lukash, a Sherpa and deputy head of the presidential experts' directorate of Russia, said, "This is the last meeting before the Hangzhou summit, and we have agreed today and in previous days about the major outcomes of Hangzhou."

In the innovation sector, Li said the G20 members had reached broad consensus on a blueprint for innovative growth, passed action plans for innovation and a new industrial revolution, and exchanged views regarding cooperation on the digital economy.

"This will consolidate the foundation of the global economic recovery and provide sustainable power for the long-term growth of the world economy," he said.

Ayse Sinirlioglu, a Turkish Sherpa and deputy undersecretary for economic affairs at the Turkish Foreign Ministry, said the blueprint is expected to give impetus to the global economy.

"With the blueprint, we will hopefully give new impetus to the global economy in the mid and long term because we need to boost confidence as well as the productivity of the global economy. But we also need to send the message that all these efforts will in fact be inclusive within nations and also among nations," he said.

On Saturday, Li said progress had been made among G20 member states to address development, trade investment and governance. Member states agreed to build a trade-investment mechanism, while working out high-level principles on the repatriation of fugitives and asset recovery, and vowed to build a related research center in China.

"All members also approved in principle the action plans to implement the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, and the cooperation initiative to support the industrialization of Africa and the least-developed countries," Li said.

Sinirlioglu said the work had laid the ground for a successful summit: "Excellent work has been done. All the draft documents have been prepared very well, and I am sure that the Hangzhou summit will be a big success."

wangxu@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily 06/27/2016 page6)