T20 organizes the G20 Think Tank Summit in China

19/08/2015

The 3rd G20 Think Tank Summit was held in Beijing, China from July 30 to August 1, 2015. The Summit was co-organized by the Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies, Renmin University of China (RDCY), Shangai Institute for International Studies (SIIS), Institute of World Economics and Politics, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences ( IWEP-CASS) and Economic Policy Foundation of Turkey (TEPAV), bringing together policymakers, foreign service representatives, experts from think tanks, international organisations, scholars and business leaders.

The Summit aims to facilitate discussions and cooperation amongst think tanks from G20 countries to examine global challenges and offer policy solutions to G-20 governments. The 3rd G20 Think Tank Summit was themed “Global Governance and Open Economy” focusing on global growth problems, global financial governance in the context of the present economic backdrop, emerging opportunities and challenges for the G20 as well as proposals for the upcoming Chinese G20 Presidency in 2016.

Following opening remarks by Chen Yulu, President of Renmin University, keynote speeches were delivered by Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero , Former Prime Minister of Spain, Harold McGraw III, Chairman of the International Chamber of Commerce, Bozkurt Aran , Former Ambassador and Director of TEPAV Center for Multilateral Trade Studies, Zhang Jun, Director-General of the International Economic Affairs Department, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People's Republic of China, Carlos Magariños, Chairman of Global Alliance of SMEs and Former UNIDO Director General and Yang Jiemian, Director of Academic Committee of Shanghai Institute for International Studies (SIIS).

In his speech, Ambassador Aran talked about emerging global governance challenges as well as the Turkish G20 Presidency’s priorities in 2015. He also stated three major changes that the Turkish Think20 has brought to the agenda in 2015:

“First of all, building on inclusiveness, we have turned T20 into a more closely knit group. At least we aspired to do so. We invited a wide array of experts influential think tanks from G20 as well as non-G20 countries to participate in policy discussions and produce policy papers and reports. Contributions to the newly established website of T20 2015 attest to that closer cooperation. Secondly, we see the T20 as an opportunity to bring continuity to the G20 agenda. As G20 does not have a secretariat of any sort, there is room for T20 to be more active in representing both continuity and change in official agenda. Third, T20 can be turned into a mechanism for shaping the future agenda of the G20. The government urged us to incorporate Innovation20 (an unofficial initiative in Australia) into the Think20 framework. Thus, we brought technology and innovation and internet governance as new focus areas into the T20 agenda. This is because the fast increasing and pervasive role of innovation, science and technological development or the Knowledge Economy is transforming the world economy substantially. A new dimension in cooperation is thus required, notably to harness the enormous potential of the Knowledge Economy while curtailing the also fast increasing inequalities in economies. In the Berlin T20 workshop, we set the stage for a future technology and innovation agenda item for G20.”

China will chair the G20 in 2016.