21 July 2017

 

The G20 must stand together and show leadership says Chair of the B20

 

"The business representatives of the G20 members call on the G20 to be united and show leadership in shaping globalisation" said Jürgen Heraeus, Chair of the official business dialogue Business 20 (B20), ahead of the G20 Summit in Hamburg held on 7-8 July 2017.

 

"Global challenges need global solutions. National solo-runs are bound to fail. The G20 is now more important than ever and must overcome the challenges of the last few months," explained Heraeus. Over the past ten months, the B20 has developed recommendations for the G20 to improve the future viability and sustainability of the global economy. "We stand for open and rules-based markets. At the same time, we must ensure that the benefits from globalisation are widespread in our societies. For example, we need to invest more in education and lifelong learning." The B20 spoke out strongly against protectionism and for strengthening the multilateral trade system with the WTO at its heart.

 

The B20 supports the Paris Climate Agreement and encourages the G20 members to send a clear signal in Hamburg for climate protection. "Climate protection and economic growth are not mutually exclusive. Quite the opposite. In order to push ahead with the necessary innovations, leaving room to ensure competitiveness, a reliable implementation of the Paris Climate Agreement is necessary in order to ensure fair competition," said Heraeus.

 

Numerous protests took place at the G20 Summit. "I strongly believe that the G20 and its Communiqués should be reviewed critically. But the right way is a constructive debate and exchange," stated Heraeus. In joint statements, the G20 Engagement Partners expressed their support for open and inclusive societies, and most recently for climate protection and international cooperation.

 

The recipes to promoting inclusive and interconnected development through the G20 process are not new, but well known. The challenge is implementation. For the G20 leaders, this means to set these issues as priorities in their work and deliver on their commitments made at the G20 level. In order to better understand implementation of G20 commitments at the national level and increase accountability, the IOE together with Deloitte have undertaken a survey to monitor implementation of G20 commitments between 2014 and 2016 (under G20 Australia, Turkey and China).

 

This report provides a high-level overview of the extent to which many of the G20 countries are implementing commitments to women, youth and entrepreneurship. The indicators show that there is quite some way to go in terms of implementing programmes and realising the G20’s self-set targets. The G20’s commitment on employment and education call for coordinated action between governments, businesses and other social partners. Thus, it is of crucial importance that businesses are closely involved in the establishment and subsequent implementation of policies to meet the identified G20 commitments and targets.

 
 
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