G20

"G20" redirects here. For other uses, see G20 (disambiguation).

Group of Twenty Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors

Areas in dark blue represent the member countries in the G-20; light blue represent members of the European Union not individually represented.
Abbreviation	G-20
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	20 Argentina Australia Brazil Canada China France European Union Germany India Indonesia Italy Japan Mexico Russia Saudi Arabia South Africa South Korea Turkey United Kingdom United States
Current chair	South Korea (2010)
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 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 85% of global gross national product, 80% of world trade (including EU intra-trade) and two-thirds of the world population.

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 Toronto on June 26–27, 2010, and the next will be 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 South Korea; after the G20 Summit during November 11-12, it will be handed over to France.

Member countries and organizations

In 2010, there are 20 members of the G-20. These include, at the leaders summits, the leaders of 19 countries and of the European Union, and, at the ministerial-level meetings, the finance ministers and central bank governors of 19 countries and of the European Union :

Region	Member	Leader		Finance Minister		Central Bank Governor	GDP (nominal·PPP) $Million USD		GDP per capita $USD	Population
Africa	South Africa	President	Jacob Zuma	Minister of Finance	Pravin Gordhan	Gill Marcus	287,219	492,684	5,700	49,320,500
North America	Canada	Prime Minister	Stephen Harper	Minister of Finance	Jim Flaherty	Mark Carney	1,336,427	1,281,064	39,600	34,088,000
	Mexico	President	Felipe Calderón	Secretary of Finance	Ernesto Cordero Arroyo	Agustín Carstens	874,903	1,465,726	9,100	111,211,789
	United States	President	Barack Obama	Secretary of the Treasury	Timothy Geithner	Ben Bernanke	14,256,275	14,256,275	46,400	309,173,000
South America	Argentina	President	Cristina Fernández de Kirchner	Minister of Economy	Amado Boudou	Mercedes Marcó del Pont	310,065	584,392	7,500	40,134,425
	Brazil	President	Dilma Rousseff	Minister of Finance	Guido Mantega	Henrique Meirelles	1,574,039	2,013,186	8,000	193,088,765
East Asia	China	President	Hu Jintao	Minister of Finance	Xie Xuren	Zhou Xiaochuan	4,908,982	8,765,240	3,700	1,338,612,968
	Japan	Prime Minister	Naoto Kan	Minister of Finance	Yoshihiko Noda	Masaaki Shirakawa	5,068,059	4,159,432	39,800	127,390,000
	South Korea	President	Lee Myung-bak	Minister of Strategy and Finance	Yoon Jeung-hyun	Kim Choong-soo	832,512	1,364,148	17,100	48,875,000
South Asia	India	Prime Minister	Manmohan Singh	Minister of Finance	Pranab Mukherjee	Duvvuri Subbarao	1,310,171	3,526,124	1,000	1,180,251,000
Southeast Asia	Indonesia	President	Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono	Minister of Finance	Agus Martowardojo	Darmin Nasution	539,337	962,471	2,200	231,369,500
Western Asia	Saudi Arabia	King	Abdullah	Minister of Finance	Ibrahim Abdulaziz Al-Assaf	Muhammed Al-jasser	369,671	593,385	14,400	25,721,000
Eurasia	Russia	President	Dmitry Medvedev	Minister of Finance	Alexei Leonidovich Kudrin	Sergey Mikhaylovich Ignatyev	1,229,227	2,109,551	8,800	141,927,297
	Turkey	Prime Minister	Recep Tayyip Erdoğan	Minister of Finance	Mehmet Şimşek	Durmuş Yılmaz	615,329	880,061	7,900	72,561,312
Europe	European Union	E. Council President Commission President	Herman Van Rompuy José Manuel Barroso	Commissioner for Economic and Monetary Affairs	Olli Rehn	Jean-Claude Trichet	16,447,259	14,793,979	32,900	501,259,840
	France	President	Nicolas Sarkozy	Minister of the Economy, Industry and Employment	Christine Lagarde	Christian Noyer	2,675,951	2,108,228	41,600	65,447,374
	Germany	Chancellor	Angela Merkel	Minister of Finance	Wolfgang Schäuble	Axel A. Weber	3,352,742	2,806,226	40,800	81,757,600
	Italy	Prime Minister	Silvio Berlusconi	Minister of Economy and Finance	Giulio Tremonti	Mario Draghi	2,118,264	1,740,123	36,400	60,325,805
	United Kingdom	Prime Minister	David Cameron	Chancellor of the Exchequer	George Osborne	Mervyn King	2,183,607	2,139,400	43,541	62,041,708
Oceania	Australia	Prime Minister	Julia Gillard	Treasurer	Wayne Swan	Glenn Stevens	997,201	851,170	46,300	22,328,632

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
• 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:

In a forum such as the G-20, it is particularly important for the number of countries involved to be restricted and fixed to ensure the effectiveness and continuity of its activity. There are no formal criteria for G-20 membership and the composition of the group has remained unchanged since it was established. In view of the objectives of the G-20, it was considered important that countries and regions of systemic significance for the international financial system be included. Aspects such as geographical balance and population representation also played a major part.

All 19 member nations are among the top 32 economies as measured in GDP at nominal prices in a list published by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for 2008. Not represented by membership in the G-20 are Switzerland (19), Norway (25), Taiwan (26), Iran (28) and Venezuela (31) even though they rank higher than some members. Spain (9), Netherlands (16), Poland (18), Belgium (20), Sweden (22), Austria (24), Greece (27) and Denmark (29) 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 24 in the world in 2008, according to the IMF. Iran (17), Taiwan (19) and Thailand (23) are not G-20 members, while Spain (12), Netherlands (19) and Poland (20) 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 9th largest economy in the world and 5th in Europe in terms of nominal GDP, has requested access to the organization individually and has attended the last 3 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. One of the world's 10 largest economies, Spain has been invited to every summit. Canada also invited the Netherlands (world's 16th largest economy) while 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

G-20 Leaders Summit on Financial Markets and the World Economy in Washington, D.C. on 15 November 2008

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.

Summits

See also: List of G-20 summits

Leaders gather at the G-20 summit in Toronto on 27 June 2010

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.

	Date	Host country	Host city	Website
1st	November 2008	United States	Washington, D.C.
2nd	April 2009	United Kingdom	London	[3]
3rd	September 2009	United States	Pittsburgh	[4]
4th	June 2010	Canada	Toronto	[5]
5th	November 2010	South Korea	Seoul	[6]
6th	2011	France	TBD
7th	2012	Mexico	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, US 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 180 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:

The G-20 is a self-appointed group. Its composition is determined by the major countries and powers. It may be more representative than the G-7 or the G-8, in which only the richest countries are represented, but it is still arbitrary. We no longer live in the 19th century, a time when the major powers met and redrew the map of the world. No one needs a new Congress of Vienna.

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 about transparency and advancement of neoliberalism and corporate globalization

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

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