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Finance ministers and central bank governers pose for group photos at a hotel near Horsham, southern England, March 14, 2009. The G20 Finance Ministers' Meeting kicked off here Saturday.[Xinhua] |
The G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors Meeting was formally closed Saturday afternoon after issuing a communique calling for further action to restore global economy.
The communique said G20 countries agreed further action to restore global growth, support lending and strengthen the reform of the global financial system.
After the communique was issued, British Chancellor Alistair Darling and U.S. Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner held a press conference, respectively.
The two of them admitted that the meeting achieved some progress and made active and corresponding preparations for the upcoming G20 London Summit to be held on April 2.
When answering the question about the divergences between U.S. and EU, Darling said that individual country has different situation, so policies taken by them would be different. However, they have reached a consensus on how to stimulate global economy and strengthen the reform of the international financial system.
When asked about the U.S. and China relations, Geithner said he had a very good meeting with Chinese finance minister and central bank governor. He said that their objectives and approaches had as much in common with each other as U.S. and China today.
America's treasury markets were the most liquid in the world. The U.S. was committed to putting into place policies to bring the recovery sooner and improve long-term fundamentals to get its economy back to the path just of the sustainability.
At the meeting, Chinese Finance Minister Xie Xuren introduced China's current macro-economic situation and main anti-crisis measures taken by the Chinese government. He appealed that an open, fair and orderly international financial system should be established and efforts should be made to hasten the pace of reforming the governance of the international financial institutions.
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Chinese Finance Minister Xie Xuren (2nd R) and Zhou Xiaochuan (R), governor of the People's Bank of China, China's central bank, attend the opening ceremony of the G20 Finance Ministers' meeting at a hotel near Horsham in southern England March 14, 2009.[Xinhua] |
Zhou Xiaochuan, Chinese Central Bank Governor, also emphasized the efforts of improving international financial supervision and cooperation, strengthening the supervision over the systemically important financial institutions and rating agencies, while appealing that advanced economies should contribute to stablizing their own economies and global financial markets.
Prior to the publication of the communique by G20 finance ministers and central bank governors, Brazil, Russia, India and China, also named BRIC, issued a communique and they sent a strong appeal that the voice and presentation of emerging markets in the international financial system should be raised.
Though the meeting only last one day, 21 finance ministers and 18 central bank governors from advanced economies such as U.S., Japan, Britain, Germany and France, and emerging markets including China, India and Brazil conducted tense and in-depth discussions.
In addition, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, president of International Monetary Fund; Bob Zoellick, governor of World Bank; and Joaquin Almunia, member of the EC in charge of Economic and Monetary Affairs of European Commission, also attended the discussion.
Participants agreed to give priority to strengthening the coordination of macro-economic policies of all countries, taking further action to stimulate economy and avoiding the happening of global economic recession.
Meanwhile, the meeting emphasized to realize the consensus made in Washington Summit last November in the sectors of strengthening financial supervision, improving market loyalty and speeding up the reform of international financial institutions.
(Xinhua News Agency March 15, 2009)