On July 9- 10, Mr. Frank Ning, Chairman of Sinochem Group, attended the G20 Trade Ministers Meeting held in Shanghai as the Chairman of B20 trade and investment group and delivered a speech during the opening ceremony on the progress and policy recommendations concerning B20 trade and investment.
Mr. Frank Ning stated that trade and investment are crucial for driving global economic growth. In addition, he proposed the following recommendations on behalf of the business community: first, G20 shall continue to strengthen the development of a multilateral trading system and eliminate trade protectionism, thus realizing the institutionalization of G20 Trade Ministers Meeting. Second, he called on the signing and implementation the Trade Facilitation Agreement as soon as possible and G20 countries shall demonstrate leadership in this process. Third, it shall help SMEs to integrate into the global value chain by means of a global trade electronic platform, multi-channel financing, regulatory environment improvement, etc. At last, he called on all countries to improve the global investment environment, such as formulating investment policy instruction, adopting investment facilitation plan, forming more effective investment dispute settlement mechanism, etc.
In this speech, Mr. Frank Ning noted the issue of strengthening institutionalization of G20 trade and investment. He expressed that trade is a major driver of economic growth; however, due attention has not been given to trade-related issues, leading to limited policy support. It is recommended that G20 Trade Ministers Meeting be institutionalized and be lifted to the same height with finance minister meeting so as to make Trade Ministers of G20 member countries discuss the trade issue more effectively under the institutionalized meeting mechanism so that more attention and importance could be devoted to trade and investment issues in the real economy sector, thus people around the world can witness the importance of trade in promoting economic growth.
In addition, Mr. Frank Ning put forward the view concerning excess capacity in the world. He pointed out that excess capacity and global economic slowdown are directly related, which could be seen from the production and operation of enterprises. Time is required for the establishment of production capacity, and more time is needed for removing excess capacity; in addition, income, employment, environment and other issues shall be considered and the guiding role of market shall be adopted in removing excess capacity. Taking China as an example, its government is taking active measures to remove the excess capacity, including de-leveraging, controlling borrowing and investment, etc.
This meeting is an important event in China G20, and holds great significance in promoting comprehensive trade and investment cooperation of G20 members. Mr. Wang Yang, Vice-premier of the State Council, met the guests; Mr. Gao Hucheng, Director of Minister of Commerce hosted the meeting; and Trade Minister of G20 member countries and responsible person of the WTO, World Bank, IMF, OECD and other international organizations (over 500 in total) attended the meeting.