UN chief has high hopes for agenda

Ban Ki-moon, the United Nations secretary-general, has high expectations of what the G20 Leaders Summit being hosted by China on Sept 4 and 5 can achieve.

The meeting in Hangzhou, the capital of Zhejiang province, is the final time Ban will attend a G20 summit in his capacity as UN chief. His second five-year term concludes at the end of 2016.

He says sustainable development goals and climate change top his agenda for the summit.

"For the first time in the history of the G20, the Chinese leadership is aligning the action agenda, the sustainable development goals and the climate change agreement into the G20 agenda," Ban told Chinese media on Aug 26 at the UN Headquarters in New York City.

"This is the first time G20 leaders will gather to discuss both sustainable development goals and climate change, and how we can implement them in parallel."

He says the theme of the Hangzhou summit - "Building an Innovative, Invigorated, Interconnected and Inclusive World Economy" - reflects the spirit of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, which was approved by world leaders in September 2015.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang says the G20 summit will prioritize development.

"We will push to adopt an action plan for implementation of the 2030 Agenda, and coordinate collective actions with country actions," he says, adding that the summit will send a strong signal on development, which will help to implement the international consensus and inject new impetus into world economic growth.

Chinese leaders have steered debate to move the G20 from short-term crisis management to long-term perspectives, according to the UN secretary-general.

Ban says G20 leaders also need to look at how to manage global economic difficulties, adding that China has been leading by example.

Chinese Finance Minister Lou Jiwei says China is promoting priority areas and guiding principles for a structural reform of the G20 that is vital to achieve the goal of raising G20 GDP by at least 2 percent by 2018.

On Aug 26, he said in Beijing that G20 finance ministers and central bank governors had reached a consensus on global cooperation.

Ban says the Hangzhou summit is also an excellent opportunity for G20 leaders and others to advance ratification of the Paris agreement on climate change.

wanglinyan@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily Africa Weekly 09/02/2016 page7)