African countries expect G20 Summit to address global challenges

JOHANNESBURG - African countries have high expectations for the upcoming G20 Summit, which is expected to address a series of burning issues affecting the world, particularly developing countries, South African experts have said.

African countries expect the G20 Summit, scheduled for Hangzhou, China on September 4-5, to be open and frank in addressing global challenges, Sabelo Gatsheni-Ndlovu, a researcher on Developmental Studies at the University of South Africa, told Xinhua in a recent interview.

Gatsheni-Ndlovu said: "Obviously G20 cannot ignore environmental challenges facing the world, terrorism and general development. The world is facing depressed growth and they have to come up with a solution on what needs to be done."

The researcher, who is also director of Archie Mafeje Research Institute in South Africa, called on the summit to genuinely address the climate challenges. He said the global North countries are the major contributors to ozone depletion and should take responsibility and frankly address it.

Gatsheni-Ndlovu said developed countries should not blame others for the climate change and instead take concrete action.

Speaking of terrorist threats, Gatsheni-Ndlovu stressed the importance of punishing those who are arming terrorists.

He accused certain Western countries of fueling disunity by sponsoring terrorist groups in countries like the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Iraq, Syria, and some other African countries.

At the G20 Summit, South Africa is expected to raise issues affecting Africa and the global South in accordance with its foreign policy, according to Gatsheni-Ndlovu.

"South Africa is expected as per the custom to speak on behalf Africa in the G20. They have to raise issues bedeviling Africa and the global South, which include weak economic growth, terrorism and underdevelopment in general," he said.

The summit will be held under the theme: "Toward an Innovative, Invigorated, Interconnected and Inclusive World Economy".

The G20 Summit should come up with a long-term strategy to prevent further slowdown of the world economy, Gatsheni-Ndlovu said.

Kuben Naidoo, Deputy Governor of the South African Reserve Bank (SARB), also said the sluggish economic growth should feature prominently at the G20 Summit.

The summit should take concrete steps to help the world going forward as the economies of most countries are not performing well, Naidoo told Xinhua.

There should be resilient plans from the summit to avoid a similar global economic crisis in future, Naidoo said.

"We expect G20 to address the broader issues around global growth, getting growth back on track to ensure sustainable growth and making sure that the financial sector reform process continue. We have to deal with too-big-to-fail issues," he noted.

Naidoo also stressed the importance of dealing with money laundering, Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS), and other tax avoidance schemes in a coordinated manner to prevent illicit outflows and corrupt practices.