A Pressing Priority

By ZHOU JIANXIONG

A Pressing Priority

By ZHOU JIANXIONG

Cannes, France is well known as the venue of theFestival de Cannes, one of the most prestigious film festivals in the world. When the event is held each year, movie stars from across the globe draw worldwide attention. On November 3-4, the seaside resort once again attracted the focus of global attention, as stars of another genre—leaders of the Group of 20 (G20) member economies, gathered there for the bloc’s sixth summit. Naturally, G20 leaders drew great attention as they attempted to restore the world economy.

In September 2009, G20 meetings formally replaced the summit meetings of the Group of Eight, often called “the old-time rich nations’ club.’’ Since then G20 meetings have become the world’s leading forum for economic cooperation. The birth of this new dialogue mechanism, on the one hand, shows the changing trends in the global economic setup, and on the other hand it gives emerging economies an equal opportunity to air their views and take part in the decision-making process relative to important world economic and development issues. This mechanism is widely considered more constructive and effective than its predecessor, since problems in the world economic system can now be addressed under a broader and more concerted framework.

The Cannes G20 Summit occurs at a time when the world is confronted with some of the grimmest challenges: turmoil in the world’s fnancial markets in the wake of the mounting European sovereign debt crisis, the marked slowdown of some leading economies, and emerging barriers to global economic recovery. All those pressing diffculties are hard nuts to crack. And all hope for immediate remedies so that the world can avert further recession and focus on the long-anticipated goal of bringing the global economy back on track.

As the Cannes summit drew to a close, consensus had been reached in a number of areas, including more coordinated efforts to boost economic growth and foster employment opportunities. This is, in fact, one of the key points China struck at the summit. It is also a strategy China has adopted in fghting the world economic crisis, and has thus far been successful in keeping the Chinese economy robust and healthy.

In times of a world economic crisis like the present one, all countries suffer in the context of an integrated global economy. The world community should therefore pull together and be of one mind to face up to it. Over the past few years, China has made its contribution to the world by maintaining booming economic growth. And at the Cannes G20 Summit, it also offered to grant zero tariffs to the world’s least developed countries in an effort to help them expand trade with China. As long as economies all take active and responsible measures to deal with woes at home and around the world, the current global crises will not be insurmountable.