SBY Reminded G20 of Its Initial Goal

JAKARTA, KOMPAS.com - At the recent G20 summit in France, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono had told world leaders not forget the initial goal of the group’s formation despite the current economic crisis in the Euro zone.

At a press conference upon arrival from the G20 Summit in Cannes, France here on Saturday, the president said he had also reminded G20 leaders not to forget various development programs such as poverty eradication and job creation.

"I warned them that the group’s huge task with medium-term, fundamental and strategic dimensions should not be neglected just because of the economic crisis in Greece and the Euro zone," he said.

President Yudhoyono said the 6th G20 Summit was indeed dominated by discussions on the current economic crisis in Greece so that the meeting’s main focus was on efforts to find a solution to the crisis. He said at the forum he had expressed trust in Eurozone leaders and the hope they could take concrete steps to overcome the problem.

But Yudhoyono had also reminded the other leaders that the G20 was a group representing the world’s nations so that the interests of developing and least developed countries must also be taken into consideration.

"I reminded them that as the crisis in the Euro zone would eventually be overcome, the group must return to its framework which in essence is working jointly to increase global and balanced economic growth and maintain financial stability," he said.

The G20 Summit was first held in Washington DC, the US, in 2008 in response to the global financial crisis in the year. Leaders from the developed and developing countries gathered in the forum to find solutions to the crisis and at the same time formulate a mechanism to create a stable financial system in the world so that the crisis would not happen again in the future.

One of the agreements made at the meeting was a decision to reform the financial system to create a more stable, balanced and just mechanism for all nations in the world. At the summit in Cannes, France, the G20 leaders issued a Cannes Declaration affirming the G20 member countries’ commitment to carry out and continue various policies in the fiscal and monetary fields and to make structural reforms in the financial sector by considering the impact of their domestic policies on other countries.

The G20 countries also agreed on concrete steps formulated in the Cannes Action Plan, including G20 response to restore the market’s confidence, especially with regard to the crisis in the Euro zone, acceleration of the settlement of global injustices, reform of the financial system, and adopting a policy for increasing the capacity of the International Monetary Fund in carrying out its duty of safeguarding global finances more optimally and its capacity to provide a firmer warning before a crisis happens.

President Yudhoyono said at the summit in France, the G20 leaders also agreed that the forum would remain informal but maintain its continuity and consistency in solving problems. Yudhoyono also said Indonesia was hoping to win the honor of hosting a G20 summit in 2016 to represent the Asian region in competition with China and Japan.