By Simon Nare
President Cyril Ramaphosa has urged the G20 finance ministers and central bank governors to come up with innovative ways and actions to build a global economy that was more resilient, sustainable and equal.
Addressing the gathering in his keynote speech, Ramaphosa said the financial chiefs carried a weighty responsibility on their shoulders as the global village was grappling with economic growth.
The president said the meeting has a collective responsibility of the G20 for the effective stewardship of the global economy, fostering the conditions for sustainability, resilience and inclusive global growth.
He said historically this forum had played an important role in leading nations to take action in times of financial distress.
For example, the president said it was this forum the orchestrated the world’s 2008 response to the global financial crisis and mobilised the necessary financial support to enable recovery.
“The G20 played an important part in responding to the eurozone crisis and in maintaining global financial support and stability during and in the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic.
“This is a forum which has created the current global financial safety net, with the International Monetary Fund at its core, and whose stewardship has proved critical to global stability for a quarter of a century,” he said.
Ramaphosa said the forum must use the same energy and zest to help developing countries to grow their economies and pay off their debts amid souring debt costs.
The president said that just as the forum has done in the past, it needed to raise its level of ambition to achieve specific, concrete and impactful outcomes with lasting consequences.
In doing so, he said, the G20 Finance Track needed to work in concert with the Sherpa Track as the success of the G20 over the years has relied on alignment and collaboration between the two tracks.
He added that while each track may have specific areas of focus and expertise and their own working arrangements, they shared a common mission: to enable sustainable, resilient and inclusive global growth.
He told the gathering that the G20 foreign ministers met in Johannesburg last week to share perspectives on the global geopolitical environment and outline the priorities and tasks of the G20 Sherpa Track for 2025.
He added that the meeting reaffirmed the role of the G20 as the premier forum for international economic cooperation.
“At this time of global uncertainty and escalating tension, it is now more important than ever that the members of the G20 work together. The erosion of multilateralism presents a threat to global growth and stability.
“We know from the experience of past decades that a fair, transparent and inclusive rules based international order is an essential requirement for economic stability and for sustained growth,” he said.
The president said that at this current time of heightened geopolitical contestation, a rules-based order was particularly important as a mechanism for managing disputes and resolving conflict.
“It is vital to ensuring that the rights and interests of the vulnerable are not trampled beneath the ambitions of the powerful.
“Multilateral cooperation is our only hope of overcoming unprecedented challenges, including slow and uneven growth, rising debt burdens, persistent poverty and inequality, and the existential threat of climate change,” he said.
Ramaphosa said the G20 was not moving quickly enough or boldly enough to address these global challenges and urged the group to collectively step-up efforts to improve the lives of all people and protect future generations.
He added that one of the greatest impediments to growth, development and stability was the persistence of inequality within and between countries.
Ramaphosa also raised the matter of natural disasters caused by climate change, saying developing nations which did not contribute greatly to this phenomenon were the hardest hit and were grappling with high costs of rebuilding infrastructure destroyed by these disasters.
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