by Jaafar Siddiqui
G20 have played a major role this year by providing financial, economic, and social support to countries across the globe…
G20-2020 summit has facilitated the world economies with funds and discussions for building up healthy, thriving, and eco friendly economies. And the progress on the policies discussed can be observed as the G20 under the presidency of Italy continues to work on the implementation.
G20 is an international forum consisting of 19 countries and the European Union (EU). It has been a very strong instrument for quick and efficient decision making since it came into action in 2008 at the time of the global financial crisis. Although G20 began in 1999, at the time it was created to respond to the financial crisis in East Asia by having a bigger economic pool when it didn’t exist. The vision of G20 has come a long way since 1999. Even though it was initiated in 1999 they were few years of inactiveness till 2008.
In 2008, it got revived and played a major role in the global financial crisis by acting as an emergency crisis forum for the leaders of the world who together pledged to invest $1.1 trillion into the economies to help the countries and businesses around the world to keep moving even at the times of the crisis.
“G20 plays a critical role in creating and enabling environment for inclusive global growth and development. Its work on ensuring financial stability, promoting growth, and avoiding and managing crises”, said Saud Rehman, a journalist from Media-24 who reported on G20-2020 summit in Riyadh.
“The G20 anti-corruption and integrity agenda plays an important role in promoting sustainable development”, added Saud.
The work of G20 can be divided into two tracks, financial and Sherpa. The financial track consists of G20 finance ministers, central bank governors and deputies discussing the financial and economic issues. Rehman also added that the monetary and fiscal policies, infrastructure investment, financial regulation, financial inclusion, and international taxations were some of the issues which were discussed under the financial track this year.
On the other hand, the Sherpa track focuses on socio-economic issues such as health, education, trade, women empowerment, employment, anti-corruption, tourism, agriculture and water, energy, climate, and environment.
G20 have played a major role this year by providing financial, economic, and social support to countries across the globe in their fight against the pandemic.
“There is no doubt that helping the world cope up with the pandemic became a priority for Saudi Arabia, and the G20’s efforts have led to the commitment of more than $21 billion to support the production, distribution and availability of vaccines and drugs”, said Saud Rehman while discussing the contributions of G20 towards this pandemic.
“G20 countries pledged, after the outbreak, more than $21 billion to support the immediate funding needs, notably for the development of diagnostic tools, vaccines and effective therapeutics. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia contributed $500m to support these efforts”, said Crown Prince Muhammad Bin Salman in his speech at the G20-2020 summit.
G20 under the presidency of Saudi Arabia this year has also provided $11 trillion along with leading countries to help the world overcome the devastating effects of the pandemic. “We injected over $11 trillion into the global economy to support businesses and protect individuals’ livelihoods. This is an unprecedented G20 economic stimulus”, said Crown Prince Muhammad Bin Salman.
Given the situation due to the COVID-19, this summit was one of the most important since the leaders first met to form the G20, 12-years ago. King Salman, while addressing at the G20 summit urged nations across the globe to brace themselves better for any future pandemics to avoid the potential economic and social damages.
The efforts of G20 continues under the Italian presidency as a workshop was organized on May 25th discussing the crucial steps for Global Initiative on Reducing Land Degradation and Enhancing Conservation of Terrestrial Habitats, launched in 2020 by the G20 leaders during the Presidency held by Saudi Arabia.
On 29th June 2021 for the first time in the G20 history, a joint session of the foreign and development ministers will be held in Matera Italy. The meeting will feature two sessions, the first one will focus on global governance, multilateralism, and sustainable and resilient recovery of the economies after the pandemic. The second session is devoted to the relations with the African continent with a specific focus on sustainable development additionally inclusion of young people, trade, fight against climate change and energy transition will also be discussed.
The three pillars of G20 Italian presidency are people, planet, prosperity, in line with the “build back better” common thread aimed at promoting a sustainable, inclusive and resilient recovery.
Jaafar Siddiqui earned Bachelors in Journalism from the University of Hertfordshire — United Kingdom. He writes for The Milli Chronicle on Business, Politics, and Culture.
