Business 20 primes pump for leaders

A business group from industrial and commercial circles has proposed building an electronic world trade platform to provide input for leaders' decision-making.

Business 20 has recommended that the G20 leaders endorse the concept of eWTP for public-private dialogue to incubate cross-border e-trade rules and to make the policy and business environment more efficient for cross-border e-trade development, said Yu Ping, China's B20 sherpa, which is a post defined as the representative of the government at the international summit.

The B20 Summit will gather over 800 business leaders in Hangzhou on Saturday and Sunday, presenting more than 400 policy recommendations in various fields, including curbing trade protectionism, green finance, infrastructure connectivity and anti-corruption.

"The B20 proposes to formally establish the eWTP as an open, transparent, not-for-profit platform," said Yu. "It will cooperate with international organizations such as the World Trade Organization to prioritize e-trade development needs and enhance e-trade articles in the Trade Facilitation Agreement."

The eWTP initiative has been led by China's e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.

Jack Ma, Alibaba's executive chairman, said his company will pick two countries to run the test after the G20 Summit to see how it works. Ma has traveled to a number of countries including Russia, South Korea, Australia and several European nations to promote this initiative.

The B20 gives international companies and commercial organizations a chance to participate in global economic governance and the making of economic and trade regulations.

"I hope Alibaba could run the first round of this network and give it to somebody that could follow up," said Ma, who is also chair of the B20 SME Development Taskforce. "It will also bring investment and trade opportunities to countries that need to improve their infrastructure development, especially in the fields of telecommunication, logistics and services."

This is also the first time that the B20 has suggested promoting inclusive and green financing to further protect consumers' interests and seek more healthy growth.

"I hope to see progress made on multiple G20 priorities, including on financial regulation ... and green finance," said Bill Winters, group chief executive of Standard Chartered.

"We need to focus on ways in which to unlock investment to support the huge need for infrastructure finance across the G20 and to fund clean energy technologies that enables us to transition to a low-carbon world," said Winters, who also is co-chair of the B20's Financing Growth Taskforce.

Jiang Xueqing in Beijing contributed to this story.

zhongnan@chinadaily.com.cn