Chinese scenic city Hangzhou enters 'G20 time'

HANGZHOU - A summit of business leaders from G20 members is scheduled for Saturday and Sunday, Jiang Zengwei, chair of the Business 20 (B20) China, said at a press conference on Thursday.

The gathering of business elites marks the beginning of "G20 time" for the scenic city of Hangzhou in east China.

Chinese President Xi Jinping will attend the opening ceremony of the B20 summit and deliver a keynote speech, Jiang said at the press conference, the first held at the G20 news center.

Leaders of Argentina, South Africa, Turkey, Australia and Canada as well as heads of the International Monetary Fund, World Bank and World Trade Organization will also be present at the summit, said Jiang, also chairman of the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade.

Focusing on promoting robust, sustainable and balanced growth of the global economy, the B20 meeting will bring together more than 800 business leaders from 32 countries and 26 international organizations.

The business leaders are set to submit the B20 2016 Policy Recommendations to the Chinese president during the meeting, Jiang said.

The policy recommendations will cover topics such as encouraging robust international trade and investment, developing more effective and efficient global economic and financial governance, and enhancing infrastructure interconnectivity.

By addressing these recommendations, the G20 will create an environment that helps the international business community boost trade and investment, develop new business models, and create new jobs, Jiang said in a speech published on the B20 official website.

All of these are critical to achieving the G20's objective of building an innovative, invigorated, interconnected, and inclusive world economy and ensuring strong, sustainable and balanced growth, he said.

Established in 2010 under the G20 framework, the B20 has become an important part of the G20. To some extent, the success of the G20 summit depends on the B20 participants reaching a consensus on major measures to promote global economic development, Jiang said on Thursday.

With the world economy mired in a prolonged downturn, China, the world's second-largest economy and largest developing country, comes to the G20 presidency with high expectations.

The theme of the G20 summit is "Toward an Innovative, Invigorated, Interconnected and Inclusive World Economy." The summit is scheduled for Sept 4-5.