President Xi Jinping attends the 12th Summit of the Group of 20 (G20) major economies in Hamburg, Germany, July 7, 2017.[Photo/Xinhua]

In his speech, Xi highlighted the importance of the G20 in boosting international economic cooperation and improving global economic governance.

The consensuses reached at the G20 Summit in Hangzhou last year and other G20 summits should be implemented to create a good environment for the development of emerging economies and developing countries, Xi said.

Xi also encouraged the BRICS countries to play a leading role in supporting developing countries, especially African nations, to help them to improve development capacity.

Saying that preparations for the BRICS Summit in Xiamen are going smoothly, Xi added that he expected to make joint efforts with the other BRICS members to achieve fruitful outcomes, deepen BRICS cooperation, offer new solutions to improve global governance and contribute to global economic growth.

South African President Jacob Zuma, Brazilian President Michel Temer, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi attended the meeting and agreed that the BRICS countries should keep the good momentum of cooperation on politics, economy and people-to-people exchanges to push forward practical cooperation of the BRICS members, according to a statement from China's Foreign Ministry.

They also agreed to work together to send positive messages in the G20, to push the international order to develop in the direction of being more just and reasonable, and to create a better environment for the development of emerging markets, the statement said.