name	Group of Twenty Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors
map	G20.svg
msize	280px
mcaption
abbreviation	G-20 or G20
formation	1999 2008 (Heads of State Summits)
purpose	Bring together systemically important industrialized and developing economies to discuss key issues in the global economy.
membership
leader title	Current chair
leader name	France (2011)
num staff	''None''
website	http://www.g20.org/ }}

The Group of Twenty Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors (G-20, G20, Group of Twenty) is a group of finance ministers and central bank governors from 20 major economies: 19 countries plus the European Union, which is represented by the President of the European Council and by the European Central Bank. Their heads of government or heads of state have also periodically conferred at summits since their initial meeting in 2008. Collectively, the G-20 economies comprise 87.2% of global nominal GDP, 83.1% of global GDP (PPP), 85% of global gross national product, 80% of world trade (including EU intra-trade) and two-thirds of the world population. They contribute to 84.1% and 82.2% of the world's economic growth by nominal GDP and GDP (PPP) respectively from the years 2010 to 2016 according to IMF.

The G-20 was proposed by former Canadian Finance Minister Paul Martin (later, Prime Minister) for cooperation and consultation on matters pertaining to the international financial system. It studies, reviews, and promotes discussion (among key industrial and emerging market countries) of policy issues pertaining to the promotion of international financial stability, and seeks to address issues that go beyond the responsibilities of any one organization. With the G-20 growing in stature since the 2008 Washington summit, its leaders announced on September 25, 2009, that the group will replace the G8 as the main economic council of wealthy nations.

The heads of the G-20 nations have met semi-annually at G-20 summits since 2008. The most recent was held in Seoul on November 11–12, 2010. Starting in 2011, G-20 summits will be held annually.

Organization

The G-20 operates without a permanent secretariat or staff. The chair rotates annually among the members and is selected from a different regional grouping of countries. The chair is part of a revolving three-member management group of past, present and future chairs referred to as the Troika. The incumbent chair establishes a temporary secretariat for the duration of its term, which coordinates the group's work and organizes its meetings. The role of the Troika is to ensure continuity in the G-20's work and management across host years. The current chair of G20 is France; it was handed over from South Korea after the G20 Summit during November 2010.

Proposed permanent secretariat

In 2010, French President Nicolas Sarkozy proposed that a permanent secretariat of the G-20 should be established. Seoul and Paris were suggested as possible locations for its headquarters. China and Brazil supported the establishment of a secretariat, while Japan and Italy opposed such an innovation. South Korea proposed a "cyber secretariat" as an alternative.

Role of Asian countries

According to a report released by Asian Development Bank, it says that Asia will play more important role in the process of global economic governance reform. The report states that the rise of emerging market economies heralds a new world order, in which the G20 has become the global economic steering committee.

The report noted that Asia has led the global recovery and the region will have bigger voice on the global stage, such as shaping the G20 agenda for balanced and sustainable growth through strengthening intraregional trade and stimulating domestic demand.

! Region

! Member

Leader

Finance Minister

! Central Bank Governor

GDP(nominal·PPP)$Million USD

GDP per capita(nominal·PPP)$USD

! HDI

! Population

Africa

style="width: 9%;"

style="width: 10%;"

rowspan="3"

Stephen Harper

Jim Flaherty

Mark Carney

Felipe Calderón

Ernesto Cordero Arroyo

Agustín Carstens

Barack Obama

Timothy Geithner

Ben Bernanke

rowspan="2"

Cristina Fernández de Kirchner

Amado Boudou

Mercedes Marcó del Pont

Dilma Rousseff

Guido Mantega

Alexandre Tombini

Lee Myung-bak

Yoon Jeung-hyun

Hu Jintao

Xie Xuren

Zhou Xiaochuan

Yoshihiko Noda

Yoshihiko Noda

Masaaki Shirakawa

South Asia

Manmohan Singh

Pranab Mukherjee

Duvvuri Subbarao

Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono

Agus Martowardojo

Darmin Nasution

Ibrahim Abdulaziz Al-Assaf

Muhammed Al-Jasser

Dmitry Medvedev

Alexei Leonidovich Kudrin

Sergey Mikhaylovich Ignatyev

Recep Tayyip Erdoğan

Mehmet Şimşek

Erdem Başçı

----

President of the European Commission>Commission President

Herman Van Rompuy

----

José Manuel Barroso>José Manuel Durão Barroso

Olli Rehn

Jean-Claude Trichet

Nicolas Sarkozy

François Baroin

Christian Noyer

Angela Merkel

Wolfgang Schäuble

Jens Weidmann

Silvio Berlusconi

Giulio Tremonti

Mario Draghi

David Cameron

Chancellor of the Exchequer

George Osborne

Oceania

Julia Gillard

Wayne Swan

Glenn Stevens

In addition to these 20 members, the following forums and institutions, as represented by their respective chief executive officers, participate in meetings of the G-20:

the Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund

the Chairman of the International Monetary Fund

the President of the World Bank

the International Monetary and Financial Committee

the Chairman of the Development Committee

Membership does not reflect exactly the 19 largest national economies of the world in any given year. The organization states:

All 19 member nations are among the top 28 economies as measured in GDP at nominal prices in a list published by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for 2010. Not represented by membership in the G-20 are Switzerland (19), Taiwan (24), and Norway (25), even though they rank higher than some members. Spain (12), Netherlands (16), Belgium (20), Sweden (21), Poland (22), and Austria (26) are included only as part of the EU, and not independently. When the countries' GDP is measured at purchasing power parity (PPP) rates, all 19 members are among the top 25 in the world in October 2010, according to the IMF. Iran (18), Taiwan (19) and Thailand (24) are not G-20 members, while Spain (13), Poland (20) and Netherlands (21) are only included in the EU slot. However, in a list of average GDP, calculated for the years since the group's creation (1999–2008) at both nominal and PPP rates, only Spain, Netherlands, Taiwan, and Poland appear above any G-20 member in both lists simultaneously. Spain, being the 12th largest economy in the world and 5th in the European Union in terms of nominal GDP, is a 'permanent guest' of the organization, although the Spanish government's policy is to not request official membership. As such, Spain has been invited and attended the last four G-20 summits with its own delegation.

Invitees

Typically, several countries that are not permanent members of the G20 are nonetheless extended invitations to participate in the summits. The invitees are chosen by the host country. For the 2010 summits, for example, both Canada and South Korea invited Ethiopia (chair of NEPAD), Malawi (chair of the African Union), Vietnam (chair of ASEAN), and Spain. As one of the world's 12 largest economies, Spain has been invited to every summit. Canada also invited the Netherlands (world's 16th largest economy) while South Korea invited Singapore. Both Canada and South Korea invited seven international organizations: the United Nations, the International Labour Organization, the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, the World Trade Organization, and the Financial Stability Board.

History

The G-20, which superseded the G33, which had itself superseded the G22, was foreshadowed at the Cologne Summit of the G7 in June 1999, but was formally established at the G7 Finance Ministers' meeting on 26 September 1999. The inaugural meeting took place on 15–16 December 1999 in Berlin. In 2008 Spain and Netherlands were included by French invitation for the G-20 Leaders Summit on Financial Markets and the World Economy.

In 2006 the theme of the G-20 meeting was “Building and Sustaining Prosperity”. The issues discussed included domestic reforms to achieve “sustained growth”, global energy and resource commodity markets, ‘reform’ of the World Bank and IMF, and the impact of demographic changes due to an aging population. Trevor A. Manuel, MP, Minister of Finance, South Africa, was the chairperson of the G-20 when South Africa hosted the Secretariat in 2007. Guido Mantega, Minister of Finance, Brazil, was the chairperson of the G-20 in 2008; Brazil proposed dialogue on competition in financial markets, clean energy and economic development and fiscal elements of growth and development. In a statement following a meeting of G7 finance ministers on 11 October 2008, US President George W. Bush stated that the next meeting of the G-20 would be important in finding solutions to the (then called) economic crisis of 2008. An initiative by French President Nicolas Sarkozy and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown led to a special meeting of the G-20, a G-20 Leaders Summit on Financial Markets and the World Economy, on 15 November 2008.

Despite being fairly informal and lack of rule enforcing ability, the G 20 is quite powerful and has a strong input on global policy. This power does not clear all problems, and there are disputes over the legitimacy of the G 20 and some internal quarrels.

Additionally, there had been talk and hope for better organization and power at the Seoul summit, but there was little done. Macroeconomics was discussed while development issues were ignored. Many hope that global governance can be made more inclusive by the G 20 and that their declarations can actually be seen through.

Summits

The G-20 Summit was created as a response both to the financial crisis of 2007–2010 and to a growing recognition that key emerging countries were not adequately included in the core of global economic discussion and governance. The G-20 Summits of heads of state or government were held in addition to the G-20 Meetings of Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors who continued to meet to prepare the leaders' summit and implement their decisions. After the debut summit in Washington, D.C. during 2008, G-20 leaders met twice a year in London and Pittsburgh in 2009, Toronto and Seoul in 2010.

Beginning in 2011, when France will chair and host the G-20, the summits will only be once a year. Mexico will chair and host the leaders' summit in 2012.

April 2009 September 2009 June 2010 November 2010 November 2011 2012

!! Date !! Host country !! Host city !! Website
2008 G-20 Washington summit	1st	November 2008	|	Washington, D.C.
2009 G-20 London summit	2nd	|		London
2009 G-20 Pittsburgh summit	3rd	|		Pittsburgh
2010 G-20 Toronto summit	4th	|		Toronto
2010 G-20 Seoul summit	5th	|		Seoul
2011 G-20 Cannes summit	6th	|		Cannes
7th	|		TBD

Critiques

Exclusivity of membership

Although the G20 has stated that the group's "economic weight and broad membership gives it a high degree of legitimacy and influence over the management of the global economy and financial system," its legitimacy has been challenged. With respect to the membership issue, U.S. President Barack Obama has noted the difficulty of pleasing everyone: "everybody wants the smallest possible group that includes them. So, if they're the 21st largest nation in the world, they want the G-21, and think it's highly unfair if they have been cut out."

Norwegian perspective

In an interview with Der Spiegel, Norwegian Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Støre called the G-20 "one of the greatest setbacks since World War II." Although Norway is the largest contributor to development programs in the World Bank and United Nations, it is not a member of the E.U. and thus not represented in the G-20 even indirectly. Norway, like the other 170 nations not among the G-20, has little or no voice within the group. Støre characterized the G-20 as a "self-appointment group", arguing that it undermines the legitimacy of organizations set up in the aftermath of World War II, organizations like the IMF, World Bank and United Nations:

Global Governance Group (3G) response

According to Singapore's representative to the United Nations, UN members who are not G20 members have responded to the G20's exclusivity by either reacting with indifference, refusing to acknowledge the G20's legitimacy, or accepting that the G20 will be the premier forum for international economic cooperation going forward but hoping to "engage the G-20 as the latter continues to evolve so that our interests are taken on board." Out of this latter group Singapore has taken a leading role in organizing an informal "Global Governance Group" of 28 non-G20 countries, with the idea being that by working collectively they might channel their views into the G20 process more effectively. Singapore's chairing of the Global Governance Group was cited as a rationale for inviting Singapore to the November 2010 G20 Summit in South Korea.

Concerns

The G20's transparency has also been questioned by critics who call attention to the absence of a charter and the fact that the most important meetings are closed-door. Critics propose an alternative such as an Economic Security Council within the United Nations, where members should be elected by the General Assembly based on their importance in the world economy and the contribution they are willing to provide to world economic development.

The cost and extent of summit-related security is often a contentious issue in the hosting country and G-20 summits have attracted protesters from a variety of backgrounds, including anarchists, anti-capitalists and nationalists.

See also

List of G-20 summits

Group of Thirty

References

Further reading

Haas, P.M. (1992). "Introduction. Epistemic communities and international policy coordination," ''International Organization 46,1:1-35.

Hajnal, Peter I. (1999). ''The G8 system and the G20 : Evolution, Role and Documentation.'' Aldershot, Hampshire: Ashgate Publishing. 13-ISBN 978-0-7546-4550-4/10-ISBN 0-7546-4550-9; OCLC 277231920

Reinalda, Bob and Bertjan Verbeek. (1998). ''Autonomous Policy Making by International Organizations.'' London: Routledge. 10-ISBN 0-415-16486-9/13-ISBN 978-0-415-16486-3; 13-ISBN 978-0-203-45085-7;10-ISBN 0-203-45085-X; OCLC 39013643

Augusto Lopez-Claros, Augusto, Richard Samans and Marc Uzan. (2007). ''The international monetary system and the IMF, and the G-20 : a great transformation in the making?'' Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. 10-ISBN 0-230-52495-8/13-ISBN 978-0-230-52495-8; OCLC 255621756

External links

Official G-20 website

2010 Seoul G20

G-20 Information Centre from the University of Toronto

A Guide To Committees, Groups, And Clubs from the International Monetary Fund

G20 Special Report guardian.co.uk

IPS News - G20 Special Report

The G20's role in the post-crisis world by FRIDE

The Group of Twenty—A History, 2007

http://www.indiainfoline.com/Markets/News/Archived/Economics-for-Everyone-G20-Gearing-for-Growth/1035896400

Category:International economic organizations

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