The Government of China says it supports efforts by the Commonwealth and La Francophonie to ensure developing country concerns feature in the agenda of the next G20 summit.
The Government of China says it supports efforts by the Commonwealth and La Francophonie to ensure developing country concerns feature in the agenda of the next G20 summit, which will be hosted in the Chinese city of Hangzhou in September.
Delegations from the Chinese G20 presidency and members of the G20 Development Working Group (DWG), including the Commonwealth and La Francophonie, met this week at the United Nations in New York to plan for the upcoming summit.
Negotiations looked at ways to boost the participation of small and less-developed countries in trade and raise domestic revenues through taxation, as well as promoting economic transformation through industrialisation.
“We have agreed to continue deepening engagement and collaboration, through actively facilitating dialogue and the sharing of information, to highlight and to address the needs of the poorest, smallest and most vulnerable countries,” said the delegations in a joint statement released today.
The dialogue on 20 April was attended by over 26 developing countries from Africa, Asia, the Pacific and the Caribbean regions, six G20 member countries, as well as international and regional organisations.
Wang Xiaolong, China’s lead representative, said: “The Chinese presidency attaches great importance to the engagement with the Commonwealth and La Francophonie. We believe that this helps to make the G20's development agenda more relevant for those developing countries it aims to support."
The developing countries represented said they welcomed the initiatives of the G20 as well as the OECD to reform the international tax system, saying that it is “crucial” for developing countries to be able to raise domestic revenues in order to deliver on the Sustainable Development Goals. The G20 needs to look at analysing harmful tax competition, revising tax and investment treaties and reducing tax exemptions, they added.
Commonwealth Deputy Secretary-General Deodat Maharaj said: “As the primary authority on global financial and economic governance, the G20’s actions have a significant impact on the growth and development trajectories of all countries, whether they are in the developed or the developing world.
“It is therefore vital that the voices of developing countries are heard when decisions that will affect them are made. We have worked closely with the G20, through the DWG, to build an effective platform for this kind of outreach.”
A presentation by the Commonwealth Secretariat on the challenges and opportunities regarding industrialisation in many Commonwealth and La Francophonie countries was welcomed by the G20.
The meeting was supported financially by the Government of Australia.