By Qin Jian
During the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368), Marco Polo, a famous European traveller and explorer from Venice, visited Hangzhou. He was overwhelmed and referred to the city as “the City of Heaven”， “beyond dispute the finest and the most splendid in the world.”
As centuries have passed, today’s Hangzhou, the capital city of Zhejiang Province on China’s Southeastern coastline ,has turned into a city that “embraces a unique style, a combination of history and modernity” according to Chinese President Xi Jinping. Several days ago, this vibrant city attracted wide attention from the global society once again only because it hosted the highly expected 11th G20 Summit.
There is no need to hide the fact that the global economy, while still on the road to recovery, faces multiple risks and challenges such as weak growth momentum, sluggish demand, volatility in the financial market and low growth in international trade and investment since the outbreak of the financial crises, eight years ago. Against the background, the foremost task of the Hangzhou Summit of the G20 which represents over 85% of the world economy and two-thirds of the global population is to drive a process that would give the needed boost to the global growth. According to President Xi Jinping, the Summit, with a theme of “Towards an innovative, Invigorated, interconnected and inclusive world economy” ,aimed to provide a solution that addresses both the symptoms and root causes of the global economic problems and propel the global economy onto a path of robust, sustainable, balanced and inclusive growth. During the two-day summit, China, the world’s second largest economy and host of the summit, clearly articulated a solution to the lack-luster global economy, which among others, called for an end to unsustainable growth, and canvassed for structural reform and encouraged innovation and entrepreneurship. Given China’s own experience, the world considerably reposed much hope in China’s perspective and experience in steering the G20 toward a more balanced power-sharing model and constructive path for the global economy and was not disappointed at the successful host of the Summit. Leaders of the global leading economies discussed other prominent issues affecting world economy such as climate change, refugees, anti-terrorism financing and global public health, reaching broad consensus and adopted the G20 leaders’ communiqué on Hangzhou Summit which charted a roadmap that specified directions, targets and measures. As in related global and regional roundtables, which China has played leading roles, there were no platitudes or ambiguities but concrete measures designed to facilitate world economic recovery through long-term, comprehensive, open, innovative and inclusive measures.
Record number of developing countries attended the G20 Summit .It is important that China, through the Forum for China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC), is at the forefront of supporting Africa’s development agenda. At the Johannesburg Summit of FOCAC last year, President Xi pledged $60 billion support for Africa. In order to show its unremitting commitment to her sincere friends, China has invited more African countries to Hangzhou. We are delighted to see many African faces showing up during the Summit. Besides South Africa, some other African countries, including Chad, chair of the African Union; Senegal, chair of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) were also invited and made their voices heard. I believe that Africa can no longer remain on the margins where global leaders are making decisions on various issues of far-reaching significance. The Hangzhou Summit, I’d like to say, should be appreciated for“having a heart for Africa”. First，the G20 Hangzhou Summit will help accelerate Africa’s industrialization process. In a closing speech, President Xi declared that G20 would be determined to promote inclusive and interconnected development so that G20 cooperation would deliver benefits to the whole world.
For the first time, G20 Summit gives priority to development in the global macro-policy framework. Given Africa’s rich raw materials, labour, and huge markets, G20’s focus on the world economy cannot go without Africa. Africa has since adopted its Agenda 2063, an ambitious programme to have all the 54 countries on the continent enjoying some form of industrialization by then. The biggest obstacle to Africa’s economic development, as far as I am concerned, is its single economic structure, which mostly relies on primary product exports. This will change.
The summit has proposed the G20 Initiative on Supporting Industrialization in Africa and Least Developed Countries and the Global Infrastructure Connectivity Alliance Initiative, which will deliver tangible benefits to people of the developing world and contribute to the common development of mankind. China will promote G20 member states to conduct cooperation and help these countries to accelerate industrialization and through capacity building, increasing investment, improving infrastructure and other measures, so as to achieve their poverty alleviation.
Qin Jian is the Chargé d’affaires of the Chinese Embassy in Nigeria
Second the G20 Hangzhou Summit will help Africa to enjoy sustainable development. We should acknowledge that energy, climate, and development are closely interrelated. For the first time, it drew up and mandated an action plan to facilitate the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for sustainable development. It also agreed to encourage the early entry into effect of the Paris Agreement on Climate Change and formulated an action plan on renewable energy and energy efficiency. Africa, which will pay high price for potential climate catastrophes, has been taken into serious consideration. Third, the G20 Summit will help African countries to fight corruption and avoid pumping money out of Africa. One of the key issues which were taken up at the summit was the advancement of anti-corruption campaign. According to president Xi, the consensus reached on this issue, included the establishment of a research centre on fugitive repatriation and asset recovery to be set up in China. President Xi further said this measure “will leave corrupt officials no place to hide in the G20 member’s territories and in the world at large.” The anti-corruption stance of the G20, accorded with the aspirations of many developing countries, including Nigeria to which the canker-worm of corruption is a heavy burden on their economies.
Qin Jian is the Chargé d’affaires of the Chinese Embassy in Nigeria