Asian Development Bank (ADB) President Haruhiko Kuroda today called for developing Asia’s members of the influential Group of 20 (G20) to take greater responsibility in driving global economic reform.
“Asia’s G20 members must play a proactive role in the G20 framework to ensure that its policies and measures reflect regional goals and development priorities,” said Mr. Kuroda in his opening remarks to a conference organized by the ADB and the Peterson Institute of International Economics. The conference was entitled “Reshaping Global Economic Governance and the Role of Asia in G20.”
The ADB President, speaking ahead of the G20 Summit to be held here next month, noted that the diversity in levels of development and priority differences among G20 members suggest hurdles exist before reaching political consensus. “As important stakeholders in this, Asian economies – both individually and collectively – hold the key to resolving these issues of conflicting interests.”
“As the world’s premier economic forum, the burden is now on the G20 to ensure better policy dialogue and cooperation,” he said.
Mr. Kuroda urged advanced economies to allow emerging market economies a role consistent with their growing economic importance. He reminded leaders that the G20 framework stresses the shared responsibility of countries to work toward strong, sustainable, and balanced global growth “through an appropriate mix of monetary, exchange rate, fiscal, financial, and structural policies.”
Mr. Kuroda said that each country and region has an important role to play. In Asia, for example, global rebalancing requires developing Asia to strengthen private consumption and investment.
“Asia needs to undertake deeper and broader reforms to promote regional demand and investment and avoid excess reliance on external demand.”
