G20 as a guardian of global welfare

Vowing to push for "interconnected" growth, leaders at the July 7-8 G20 summit in Hamburg, Germany, decided to take concrete actions to build economic resilience, improve sustainability, and assume global responsibility. They also resolved to tackle common challenges facing the international community, including terrorism, people's displacement, poverty, hunger, health problems, unemployment, climate change, energy security and inequality to ensure sustainable development.

The G20, which accounts for 85 percent of the world economy and 80 percent of global trade, used macro-level economic policy coordination to control the damage caused by the 2008 global financial crisis. The coordinated actions of the G20 members from 2009 to 2012 helped inject liquidity into markets, recapitalize international financial institutions, as well as provide a formula for global economic recovery and avoid crises.

Its efforts are also an exemplar of cooperation between developed and emerging economies. The rotating G20 chair allowed developing countries to help improve global economic governance. For countries such as China, India, Brazil and South Africa, which for decades have been at the receiving end of global economic policies set by institutions such as the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, this opportunity has been invaluable. As the G20 chair last year, China brought issues that are vital to developing countries, such as trade in services, climate change and innovation, into the global economic governance framework.