MOSCOW. (RIA Novosti economic commentator Oleg Mityayev) - On November 15, the Group of 20, representing the world's largest economies, will meet in Washington to discuss ways to overcome the global financial crisis, the worst since the 1930s.
The G20 includes the G7 and the BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China) countries, plus other significant economies such as Australia, Indonesia and Turkey.
The leading emerging economies said at the 10th meeting of the G20 finance ministers and central bank governors in Sao Paulo, Brazil, on November 8-9, held to prepare proposals for the Washington meeting, that the financial system must be restructured to take into account their combined economic strength, which is expected to surpass that of the world's richest nations in coming decades.
G8 no longer sufficient
Initially, the global powers planned to convene an emergency G8 summit to discuss cures for the ailing global economy. But it soon became clear that such a meeting would not be of much use without the BRIC countries.
The best option is the Group of 20, founded in 1999 as an informal arena to facilitate dialogue between major industrial and emerging economies. The G20 accounts for 85% of the world's economy and about two-thirds of the world's population.
The emerging countries said in Sao Paolo that the system put in place by the 1944 Bretton Woods agreement, with the IMF and the World Bank as its core institutions, was outdated and needed to be changed to take into account the greater economic importance of emerging nations.
They said they were ready to take urgent measures to stimulate economic growth. Following in the footsteps of the advanced countries, the emerging economies pledged to slash interest rates and increase state investment in the economy.
China, whose development pace is the fastest among the emerging economies, has announced a crisis management plan worth about 20% of its GDP.
Russia has promised to spend 15% of its GDP on assistance to the financial sector and the industry. On November 7, the Russian government presented a plan specifying the allocation of 5.4 trillion rubles ($197.5 billion) for the purpose.
The emerging countries' leaders agreed in Brazil to coordinate their actions to stimulate the development of trade and capital flow between them.
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