Report spotlights China’s global role

Global governance institutions are urged to be more inclusive of China and other developing countries in the decision- making process, according to an international organization’s report on Thursday.

That may require significant reform for more comprehensive, effective global governance mechanisms, said the report entitled “Reconfiguring Global Governance — Effectiveness, Inclusiveness, and China’s Global Role”, which was jointly published by the United Nations Development Programme in China and the China Center for International Economic Exchanges, a government think tank.

The report suggested China can serve as a bridge between developed and developing countries, and help developing countries be better heard in dialogue on global issues.

“That is because China has emerged as one of the leading voices of reform to spur collective action on various global issues, and as a champion of the United Nations and its attendant efforts to advance global peace and prosperity,” it said.

The report was published a week earlier than the eighth G20 leaders’ summit in St Petersburg, Russia, which is expected to increase macroeconomic cooperation to boost the global economy.

The two organizations suggested enhancing policy coordination by “bolstering linkages between regional, minilateral, and multi-stakeholder governance arrangements and their multilateral counterparts to ensure existing policy goals and objectives are broadly aligned”.

“Global coordination and the reform of long-standing global governance institutions are imperative,” which should reflect the changing geopolitics and geo- economics of the world, said Helen Clark, the administrator of the UN global development network.

“China plays a significant role as a strong supporter of multilateralism, as a leading regional and global actor, and as an important development partner of other developing countries,” Clark said.

Wei Jianguo, secretarygeneral of the China Center for International Economic Exchanges, said that the focus of global governance should shift from the financial crisis to economic growth and potential.

“Problems of poverty and unbalanced economic development still remain in the world and require the attention of the global governance mechanism,” Wei said.

Since the second quarter, economic recovery in the US, the European Union and Japan has accelerated, and the US Federal Reserve expressed signals to choose a right time for tapering the quantitative easing monetary policy.

However, emerging economies recently started to see moderated growth with sharp capital outflows, which brought obvious fluctuations in both the foreign exchange and stock markets.

There was concern in some emerging markets when the US began planning to taper quantitative easing. The Indian rupee depreciated against the US dollar by 20 percent in June. In August, the Brazilian exchange rate dropped to the lowest level since March 2009.

Chen Fengying, director of the Institute of World Economics at the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations, disagreed that developed countries will become the new engine of the world’s growth instead of emerging markets.

“In fact, emerging economies or developing countries are expected to contribute about 70 percent of the world’s growth this year, maintaining the main driving power,” she said.