‘SA key country to the success of G20 summit in Japan’
As the only member state from Africa, it will provide a continental window to the world
SOUTH Africa is the key country to make a success of the upcoming G20 Summit in Japan next week, says Japan’s ambassador to South Africa, Norio Maruyama.
As the only member of the G20 countries in Africa, South Africa would play an important role in sharing the region’s development in economic policies, among other things, with the rest of the world, Maruyama said yesterday.
The summit in Osaka takes place next week Friday and Saturday and will discuss trade and investment, health, women’s empowerment, innovation, environment and energy, and global economy.
Joining South Africa as G20 member states are Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, the European Union, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, Turkey, the UK and the US.
“South Africa plays an important role because the president of the African Union is not permanent in that role. There is not an exact continuity of that institution, so if one country is a member of the G20, it’s a very important aspect.
“Next year, South Africa will have the presidential role in the AU, so they will have to bring the whole of the continent to the summit.”
He said the summit also presented an opportunity for business people in South Africa to exchange ideas with some of the big companies around the world.
“Another challenge is that we hold the Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD7) and the president (Cyril Ramaphosa) will have to relay what the G20 had concluded in its discussions to TICAD7.”
More than 4 500 heads of state and government, as well as representatives of International and regional organisations, civil societies, NGOs and the private sector are expected to take part in TICAD 7 in Yokohama on August 28 to 30.
With Ramaphosa expected to deliver his State of the Nation address today, Maruyama said: “We would like to have a strong message coming from South Africa.”
Hosting the G20 summit for Japan was unprecedented, he said.
“First of all, if you think of the President of the US, presidents of China, Russia and India all in one country at the same time... that is quite something.
G20 embrace 80% of the global economy and 60% of the global population. Japan, as the host nation of the summit, has a special responsibility because it will need to take the lead of the discussions of the G20, and this is why the people of Japan are waiting in anticipation for this event.
“We need to show to the world what we are capable of and share the idea of Japan’s sustainable growth and how to fight the uncertainty we have around the world,” Maruyama said.
On top of Japan’s agenda will be to achieve sustainable growth of the global economy, address disparities towards realising a more equitable and inclusive growth and address global challenges.
Maruyama said Japan also wanted to use the summit to emphasise the role of women in society.
“Women empowerment is very important for us in order to ensure that our society will be better functioning in the future. This is the reason why we would like to use the G20 summit to showcase our responsibility when it comes to women empowerment. We need to try and deliver a common message to the world because we are representing 60% of the population.
“We will hold side seminars concerning women empowerment and we are expecting high participation,” he said.
Maruyama said it was all systems go for the summit as the country was putting the final touches to logistics.
“We have established a huge organising committee and gathered people from the security side. We also have a lot of cities offering to host the ministerial meetings. They also have big preparations and most of them have finished without problems. Osaka is getting ready for this kind of gathering. The city has a good track record in hosting big events. Osaka is Japan’s commercial hub, dating back to the 16th century” he said.
Osaka, according to Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, has thrived as a merchant city and has constantly sought to take in new ideas. It is a place where the spirit and willingness to take on new challenges has been nurtured, and it was also chosen to host the Osaka-Kansai Expo in 2025.
On climate change, he said: “Japan is ready to go ahead with the Paris Agreement. As the G20, we need to find a unanimous voice around climate change. We have adopted a long-term strategy to achieve the goals of the Paris Agreement. We need to have a change of mindset. When we talk of climate change, we always say it is a cost to the economy. We need to come up with strategies where businesses lead innovation in order to tackle this problem,” he said.
Maruyama has been Japan’s ambassador to South Africa for about five months and he described this period as an eye-opener.
“I have realised how difficult it is for the country to continue progressing, having in mind the difficult history, and 25 years of democracy is not sufficient to overcome all the difficulties in the economic space and political space. But the country is doing very well because 25 years is not a very long period to address all the issues that the country is faced with.”