Leaders of the world's major developed and developing countries as well as international institutions wrapped up the two-day G20 Seoul Summit on Friday afternoon with a joint communique.
Below are highlights of the communique:
-- On the world economy. Since the Toronto Summit in June this year, the global recovery continues to advance, but downside risks remain.
-- On the monetary and exchange rate policies. The G20 members will move toward more market-determined exchange rate systems and enhance exchange rate flexibility to reflect underlying economic fundamentals and refrain from competitive devaluation of currencies.
-- On world trade and protectionism. The G20 members will refrain from introducing, and oppose protectionist trade actions in all forms and recognize the importance of a prompt conclusion of the Doha negotiations. Trade and investment liberalization measures will facilitate strong, sustainable and balanced growth, and must be complemented by our unwavering commitment to resist protectionism in all its forms.
-- On trade imbalances. The G20 members will enhance cooperation to reduce trade imbalances and maintain imbalances at sustainable level. They will develop indicative guidelines composed of a range of indicators, which will serve as a mechanism to facilitate identification of large imbalances that required preventive and corrective actions.
-- On IMF quota share shifts. The G20 confirms the shifts over 6 percent in quota shares from advanced countries to emerging economies. They commit to work to complete the shifts by the G20 annual meetings in 2012.
-- On excessive liquidity and financial safety. The G20 says current volatility of capital flows is reflecting the differing speed of recovery between advanced and emerging market economies. National, regional and multilateral responses are required. And strengthened global financial safety nets can help.
-- On Basel III. The G20 endorses the agreement proposed by the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision, so-called Basel III, on the new bank capital and liquidity framework. The agreement will increase the resilience of the global banking system by raising the quality, quantity and international consistency of bank capital and liquidity, constrains the build-up of leverage and maturity mismatches, and introduces capital buffers above the minimum requirements that can be drawn upon in bad times.
-- On small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The G20 recognizes the vital role of SMEs in employment and income generation. Canada, South Korea, the United States and the Inter- American Development Bank jointly commit 528 million U.S. dollars in helping SMEs through grants and co-financing.
-- On green economy. The G20 promises to support country-led green growth policies, help facilitate development and deployment of energy efficiency and clean energy technologies, and to stimulate investment in clean energy technology.
-- On Africa. The G20 recognize the potential for faster growth in Africa. It commits to support the regional integration efforts of African leaders, including by helping to realize their vision of a free trade area. For future G20 summits, the G20 will invite no more than five non-member invitees, of which at least two will be countries in Africa.
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