SA gears for key G20 role

SA will play an important international role as president of the G20 next year, including hosting a summit of heads of state and government. It will also be responsible for organising and chairing about 200 meetings of Ministers and officials. These will come from the G20 members, invited countries and international organisations like the IMF and the World Bank. The meetings will focus on issues such as the challenges facing the global economy and whether the current arrangements for global economic governance are able to respond effectively. A Moneyweb analysis notes that the G20 presidency presents SA with an opportunity to promote reforms in global economic governance. However, there are constraints. It will inherit an agenda from Brazil, the current G20 chair. And it will have to respond to developments in the current dynamic and complex global environment. The IMF/World Bank spring meetings held in April in the US suggest some achievable objectives for the G20 next year. There was a great deal of discussion about the inability of current arrangements to adequately address global challenges like climate, public health, inequality, poverty and digitalisation.