Aim at G20 summit should be on sustained and balanced growth
SYDNEY: Expectations are high that world leaders at the upcoming G20 summit will lay the path to strong, sustainable and balanced growth, or risk further global fragility, an Australian expert has said.
Leaders of the world’s 20 largest economies (G20) leaders are set to meet in China’s Hangzhou on September 4 and 5 to discuss what the Lowy Institute for International Policy’s G20 Studies Centre programme director Tristram Sainsbury expects will be a agenda.
“I expect China will be driving an agenda that is closer to the longer term economic challenges that the G20 has been facing for a long time,” said Sainsbury, who is also a visiting fellow at Renmin University’s Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies and the Kiel Institute for the World Economy.
During the past two years, the global economic narrative has been slowly moving away from the G20’s technical goal of strong, sustainable and balanced growth, which has led to continued feelings of inequality from low global growth and continued slack in the labour market.
Political pundits have cynically called the G20 an increasingly irrelevant bloc, despite it being good at having a history of dealing with financial shocks, such as the global financial crisis and euro crisis.
“I don’t agree with those statements,” said Sainsbury.
“The G20 is still providing active leadership on economic matters and continuing to address and drive a technical agenda that is affecting people’s lives.”
China will design the Hangzhou summit’s likely technical agenda addressing trade, investment, structural reform and challenges associated with sustainable development and climate change, particularly watchable to see what mechanisms lifts the G20’s ambition, Sainsbury said.
“The sense of calm, steady, complete the jobs, continue with a technical agenda, which is consistent with the way China is wishing to take the G20 this year, is a positive system in a peace time setting,” said Sainsbury.
Sainsbury said some Western political leaders failed to promote the liberal economic order and ensure their people the global institutions.
And all these are “in fact doing credible and necessary work that’s leading to security and prosperity”.
“The question (for the upcoming G20 summit) is: what level of leadership do governments of the 20 biggest economies in the world need to provide to give the sense to people that the risks are being managed?
“It’s the best you could hope for in terms of incremental reform,” said Sainsbury. “But if the ambitions aren’t met, then this low growth, high unemployment, mounting risks scenario will continue to play out, and the risks are going to get greater.” – Xinhua
Horror hospital fire claims lives of 12 babies
BAGHDAD: A fire ripped through a maternity ward at a Baghdad hospital overnight, killing 12 newborn babies, government officials said yesterday.
The deadly blaze was likely caused by faulty electrical wiring.
By morning, grief-stricken fathers searched for their missing newborns in vain while angry relatives gathered outside the Yarmouk hospital blamed the government for the tragedy.
The hospital director, Saad Hatem Ahmed, said the blaze broke out late on Tuesday.
He said 29 female patients and eight babies were moved out and transferred to another hospital. “Some of the dead babies were preemies but not all of them,” said one of the doctors at the hospital.
Outside, crying relatives claimed some babies were still missing and demanded answers. – AP
Nod for financial city
COLOMBO: Sri Lanka’s cabinet has approved a proposal to draft the required legislation to establish a financial city in Colombo as part of a Chinese-funded port city project.
The government said the key objective of the proposed financial city was to become a prominent financial hub in the region to attract foreign investments from South Asia and the Middle East as well as from European countries.
It will also provide opportunities of employment for Sri Lankans.
The cabinet approved the proposal made by Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, in his capacity as the Minister of National Policies and Economic Affairs, to implement the project under the supervision of the Ministry of National Policies and Economic Affairs. – Xinhua
Dinosaur fossil found
BEIJING: A rare well-preserved hadrosaur fossil has been unearthed in northern China’s Mongolia autonomous region and is expected to be of huge value for research into how the species evolved, said Chinese archeologists.
More than 90% of the bones of the large hadrosaur were intact, including the head, cervical vertebra, limbs and a complete tail bone.
It is the most complete dinosaur fossil unearthed in Mongolia in 20 years. The fossil was first discovered in 2012 in Urad Back Banner, in the north-west of the region and excavation started in June 2013. More than 300 fossil bone pieces were excavated at the site, weighing a ton in total, said engineer Tan Lin.
Chinese researchers said the structure of the hadrosaur was about 8m long, 1m wide and 5m tall. It was a mature dinosaur which lived 80 million years ago. Archaeologists also found fossils of plants and organisms. – Xinhua
US, Somalia revive ties
THE relationship between the US and Somalia has switched into top gear following the arrival of the first American ambassador to Somalia in over 25 years.
Relations between the two countries collapsed in 1991 after the US closed its embassy following the overthrow of Mohamed Said Barre’s regime as violence erupted between warring clans and militias.
On Tuesday, US ambassador Stephen Schwartz, met Somali Foreign Affairs Minister Abdisalam Omar Hadliye and presented his credentials. Before the collapse of Somalia’s central government in 1991, Washington had funded numerous large-scale development projects. Schwartz urged leaders to deepen their commitment to improving the lives of Somalis. – ANA
Impeachment trial
DESPITE protests by thousands in major cities in Brazil, the senate voted 59 to 21 yesterday in favour of proceeding with an impeachment trial against democratically-elected President Dilma Rousseff, who has called the process a coup against her legitimate government.
The vote follows the approval of a report by a Senate special committee on August 2 which recommended that Rousseff be put on trial.
The debate went on for more than 12 hours and was met with protests by thousands of pro-Rousseff, anticoup forces.
Rousseff ’s opponents needed a simple majority of the 81 senators to inch closer to impeaching the first woman president, who was forced to step down on May 12. – Telesur