China to host 2016 G20 summit amid high expectations

The West Lake of Hangzhou, capital of east China's Zhejiang province. [Photo/IC]

ANTALYA, Turkey - China will host the 2016 Group of Twenty (G20) summit in the eastern city of Hangzhou, best known for its scenic West Lake, on Sept 4-5, President Xi Jinping announced Monday.

Its theme will be "Building an innovative, invigorated, interconnected and inclusive world economy," Xi said while addressing a working lunch during the just-concluded 10th G20 summit in this Turkish resort city.

China's preparations, Xi told world leaders, will be focused on innovating upon growth patterns, improving global economic and financial governance, boosting international trade and investment, and promoting inclusive and interconnected development.

"We need to increase the representation and voice of the emerging-market economies and developing countries (in global governance), so as to enhance the capabilities of the world economy to resist risks," the president said.

Explaining China's selection of the theme and priorities, Xi noted that although the world economy has walked out of crisis, the recovery remains highly fragile and growth underpowered.

"The trends and policies of major economies are becoming increasingly divergent," he said. "We are in dire need of new sources of growth to push for a new round of prosperity for the world economy."

Meanwhile, the reform of global economic governance has not progressed smoothly over recent years, and the G20 members need to take concerted actions to lead international economic cooperation, Xi added.

The president also called for concerted efforts to help the group shift from a mechanism of crisis response to one of long-term governance, so as to consolidate its status as a main forum for global economic governance.

"China will take an open, transparent and inclusive attitude in the preparations, and will enhance communication and coordination with all G20 members to jointly maintain, build and develop the group in a sound way," Xi said.

China will take over the G20 presidency on Dec. 1, 2015, and a series of related meetings will be held next year, according to Wang Xiaolong, the Chinese Foreign Ministry's special envoy on G20 affairs.

U.S. President Barack Obama voiced support for China's presidency, saying that he looks forward to attending the Hangzhou summit.

The United States is willing to work with China closely to ensure the success of the meeting, Obama told Xi on the sidelines of the Antalya summit.

Hangzhou, a centuries-old city with a population of nearly 8.9 million, is the capital and largest city of Zhejiang Province.

Zhejiang, well-known for its robust privately owned businesses, ranked fourth among the 31 provincial-level regions on the Chinese mainland in terms of GDP in 2014.

Xi worked in Zhejiang between 2002 and 2007 as head of the provincial committee of the Communist Party of China.

The G20 is a main forum for global economic and financial cooperation that brings together the world's major advanced and emerging economies, which represent around 85 percent of global GDP, 80 percent of world trade, and two-thirds of the world population.

The G20 started in 1999 as a meeting of finance ministers and central bank governors in the aftermath of the Asian financial crisis. The members included 19 individual countries along with the European Union.

In 2008, the first G20 summit was held in Washington, D.C., in the United States, and the group played a key role in the response to the global financial crisis.

The G20 presidency rotates annually among its members. To ensure continuity, the presidency is supported by a "troika" made up of the current, immediate past and next host countries. In 2015, the members of the "troika" are Turkey, Australia and China.

Last year's G20 summit was held in Brisbane, Australia.

Also on Monday, the second day of the Antalya summit, Xi shared his views on the reform of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and anti-corruption.

He expressed appreciation over the IMF's suggestion in a recent review report on the inclusion of the Chinese currency into its Special Drawing Rights basket.

On anti-corruption, Xi pledged "zero-tolerance" and called for international cooperation, saying China supports the G20 in stepping up collaboration on hunting fugitives and recovering illicit assets.

The two-day summit concluded Monday with the release of a leaders' communique and an anti-terror declaration.

After the summit, Xi left for Manila, the Philippines, to attend the 23rd Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Economic Leaders' Meeting, which is scheduled for Nov 18-19.