South Korea ready for bigger role on G20 stage

South Korea would like to host the G20 summit that will follow the next gathering of world leaders, which is set for the US next month, said a senior South Korean official.

South Korea's special presidential envoy, Sakong II, was in Beijing to talk about the response from his country and China to the issue of how best to reshape the world's financial architecture.

South Korea, said Sakong, was committed to a bigger role in the global economic recovery.

"Chinese Vice-Premier Wang Qishan is very supportive of our willingness to host the G20 summit," Sakong told China Daily in an exclusive interview shortly after his meeting with Wang yesterday. "And many other countries have also agreed that the next summit should be in Asia and South Korea."

Sakong also said Chinese president Hu Jintao is expected to meet his South Korea counterpart, Lee Myung-bak, in the US next month to discuss the next G20 summit and possible cooperation at bilateral, regional and international levels.

While the schedule for next month's summit has not been finalized, China Daily has learned that global leaders will meet in New York at the UN assembly to discuss climate change prior to their departure for the Pittsburgh G20 Summit on Sept 24 and 25.

In addition to meeting with Vice-Premier Wang Qishan, Sakong and his delegation are set to talk today to China's central banker, Zhou Xiaochuan, and Finance Minister Xie Xuren. Today's discussions will cover "talking points" that the two country's leaders may touch upon in September.

Meanwhile, World Bank chief economist Justin Lin exchanged ideas with China's Vice-Premier Li Keqiang on the global economic situation this week.

Countries and global organizations, including the International Monetary Fund, are also understood to have been working on bridging stances and understandings with China ahead of the Pittsburgh meeting. And to achieve better understanding, non-governmental channels have also been mobilized. The US think-tank Brookings and China's 50 Economists, a prestigious think-tank close to the highest leadership, will meet in Beijing next month for a one-day closed-door session.

Sakong said China and South Korea shared the view that the world had achieved "a great deal" at the past two G20 summits - in Washington and London respectively.

And he said the world's leaders had shown united determination to shake off the recession, and that was why the global financial crisis, the worst since the 1929-33 depression, ended its free fall.

"The G20 mechanism has worked very successful in achieving this," said Sakong.

At the regional level, he said South Korea will abide by the key mechanism for the region - called the Chiang Mai Initiative Multilateralisation (CMIM) - to ensure financial stability and address short-term liquidity difficulties.

"We should continue to promote the CMIM and make it work well," Sakong said.

At the bilateral level, he said his country "appreciated very much" the currency swap program signed by China and South Korea in an effort to increase liquidity last December.