G20: Emerging Economies and Their Increasing Role in Boosting Global Economic Recovery TEPAV Participated in the Webinar by China Development Institute on G20: Emerging Economies and Their Increasing Role in Boosting Global Economic Recovery

G20 has been an important mechanism for global economic governance since its inception. Among the G20 members, emerging economies are major contributors to global economic growth. However, global economic recovery following Covid-19 is still faced with the risk of economic recession and the weakening multilateral rules.

Such scenario calls for the emerging economies to coordinate and improve the effectiveness of their respective economic stimulus in order to boost economic recovery and attain sustainable development, make strong adjustment efforts together, and address the uneven development in areas such as national income, energy transition and digital economy.

China Development Institute, a leading Chinese think tank and research centre organised a webinar titled G20: Emerging Economies and Their Increasing Role in Boosting Global Economic Recovery to discuss and shed light on the challenges faced by G20 and the world. Experts from emerging economies (China, Indonesia, India, Turkey and Russia) and Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank gathered for a debate largely focusing on the following questions:

1. What are the pressing issues regarding world’s post COVID-19 recovery and how could the emerging economies in the G20 contribute?
2. How should the emerging economies in the G20 respond to the financial and debt vulnerabilities caused by U.S. and EU’s monetary policy adjustment?
3. How could the emerging economies in the G20 cooperate in attracting more international funds and investment so as to push forward energy transition and digital development?

Dr. Sait Akman, Director of G20 Studies Center represented TEPAV as panelist.  Akman, in his speech noted that:

• Macroeconomic responses to address COVID-19, in the form of rising governmental expenditures and liquidity need to be assessed with respect to their impact and effectiveness by all G20 members.
• Transactional issues such as climate change, pandemics, resource needs (energy, metals, water etc.), food security, migration affect all nations.
• National policies to combat these issues may only work if economies pursue a “concerted action” to respond to negative externalities triggered by beggar-thy-neighbour policies. The externalities can be mitigated through transnational initiatives that prioritise a better allocation of global resources.
• The emerging economies should bring new ideas and assume a leading role on restructuring global regimes (trade, finance, development…), addressing green growth, improving global health system, investing in technological investments, and adapting to digital transformation. They must also refrain from further geopolitical rivalries.
• The proposals of emerging economies to reshape global governance system must be consistent, i.e. if they are keen on legitimising the international monetary system and IMF and ask for having larger qouta shares, they should also consider to reassess their special and differential treatment (S&DT) rights in the WTO. They should not insist on technology transfer such as the designs, inventions, materials, software, technical knowledge or trade secrets, unless they are themselves ready to share it with each other developing and LDCs. Sustainable development requires to control carbon emissions and green-development policies, but also requires financing of climate investment and energy transition -which cannot be relied only on advanced economies.