While leaders of the G20 meeting in Turkey will discuss the recent terror attacks in Paris, their focus will be on strengthening global financial stability and prosperity, says UNSW international finance expert Fariborz Moshirian.
While leaders of the G20 meeting in Turkey will discuss the recent terror attacks in Paris, their focus will be on strengthening global financial stability and prosperity, says UNSW international finance expert Fariborz Moshirian.
"There is no doubt that Black Friday in France will dominate the discussion at the G20 Leaders’ Summit at Antalya in Turkey,” says Professor Moshirian from the UNSW Business School. “In the past the G20 has also attempted to address aspects of global financial stability and financial prosperity, and these discussions will also take place. It is important to see how the G20 leaders attempt to strengthen the foundations of the global security system and enhance the level of coordination and cooperation to improve global prosperity and global security.”
The 2015 G20 Antalya summit is the tenth annual meeting of the G20 heads of government.
Professor Moshirian says the official narrative from Turkey is that the summit will focus on three priority 'i’s': implementation, investment and inclusiveness.
“We can’t expect much progress on fundamental issues related to reforms of global governance, including reform of the IMF and the World Bank. However, one would expect some concrete decisions regarding global banking system reforms, as proposed by the Financial Stability Board in recent days, some more discussion on global tax reforms and possibly better conditions for multilateral free trade negotiations,” says Professor Moshirian, Director of the Institute of Global Finance at UNSW.
He adds that whether all G20 countries will support the global tax reform proposed by the OECD and whether there is enough domestic support for such tax reforms remains to be seen.
“It is also noteworthy that the Ministers for Energy met and signalled the importance of the cost, efficiency, and alternative sources of energy as part of bringing the cost of production down and spurring economic growth in the medium term.”
A considerable amount of time and effort has been spent by the Finance Ministers as well as the Ministers for Trade and Energy to provide adequate ammunition for the leaders to create far better conditions for economic growth in the immediate years ahead, he adds. “However, last year's decision regarding an extra 2.1% economic growth by 2019 appeared a bit ad-hoc. One would expect a more mature discussion on underlying factors that contribute to economic growth.”
Professor Moshirian says the G2 (the US and China) will have great influence on the G20 agenda and its effectiveness for some fundamental global reforms. “What is more important is the way any decisions made at this Summit will be carried out by all the member countries.”