G-20 Summit in Seoul

The G-20 summit took place on 11-12 November 2010 in Seoul. The summit was held under the presidency of South Korea and chaired by South Korean President Lee Myung Bak.  The Seoul summit was participated by all the 20 member nations. The summit was called to discuss the state of the global economy as it emerges from the financial crisis. The theme of the Seoul summit was shared growth beyond the crisis.

The G-20 summit at Seoul endorsed the two action plans; the multiyear action plan on development and the anti-corruption action plan. These two action plans put development and corruption as the top two G-20 agendas.

Multi Year Action Plan on Development gave developing countries a greater role in setting development priorities. The Anti- Corruption Plan set transparency and governance as the main agendas of the G-20 summit. The plan highlighted the principles laid out in the UN Convention against Corruption (UNCAC), and also set the deadline for the implementation for whistleblower safety rules.

Besides the above plans, G-20 nations agreed to avoid competitive devaluation of currencies. The nations agreed to come up with certain guidelines to deal with trade imbalances affecting world economic growth. Seoul summit also supported reforms to give emerging economies in the world such as China more importance in the International Monetary Fund.
The G-20 summit also signed the Seoul Development Consensus for Shared Growth which committed it to work in partnership with other developing countries on trade, investment and development.The G-20 Summit also agreed on The Seoul Action plan which urged for market determined exchange rates.

India, at G- 20 Summit, advised against competitive devaluation of currencies and recommended that any revival of protectionism should be resisted. An undervalued Yuan or a weak dollar can adversely affect India and several other countries by making their exports uncompetitive. India also opined against the idea of putting cap on current account balance proposed by the US at four percent of the GDP. India reasoned that to decide what are sustainable current account balances for individual nations was a difficult task because of structural differences found in the financial system of the concerned nations.

Important Information
•The Seoul Summit was the first G-20 summit outside a G-8 country.
•The Seoul Summit was the first G-20 summit held in Asia and overall the fifth G-20 summit held so far.
•The next G-20 summit is scheduled to be held in Cannes, France on 3-4 November 2011.
•The G20 group includes the world's 19 leading national economies besides the European Union. The G-20 group was created in response to the global financial crisis of 1997-99.The first G-20 summit took place at Washington DC on 14-15 November 2008.