Manmohan Singh arrives in Seoul to attend G-20 Summit

SEOUL - Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh was accorded a warm welcome here on Wednesday evening as he arrived here at the Incheon International Airport, Seoul to participate in the G-20.

The G-20 world leaders this time have converged here in the capital city of South Korea or, the Republic of Korea (ROK) with a new subject “Development” on their agenda.

During his stay here at Seoul, the Indian Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh, will hold bilateral meetings with Meles Zenawi, Prime Minister of Ethiopia, Felipe Calderon, the President of Mexico, David Cameron, the Prime Minister of United Kingdom and a pull-aside meeting with Stephen Harper, the Canadian Prime Minister.

To bring out the world from global financial crisis, the G-20 leaders met for the first time in Washington DC in 2008. The committed approach of the world leaders could be gauged from the fact that within a span of two years, the G-20 leaders convened the summit for five times at Washington DC, London, Pittsburgh, Toronto and now in Seoul.

During the first summit in Washington DC, the world leaders had agreed upon the common understanding of the cause of the global crisis and made up a plan for reforming the financial market as well as agreed to launch an action plan for the implementation.

At the London Summit, the leaders of the G-20 addressed the broad issues like reform of the International financial Institutions (IFIs) and on strong regulatory packages.

In Pittsburgh, the G-20 Summit held in September, 2009, was termed as the “Premier forum” for the international economic co-operation and mandated a “framework of strong, sustainable and balanced growth” in the 21st century through sound micro-economic policies.

With a theme of “recovery and new building’, the fourth G-20 Summit was held at Toronto in June, 2010, till then the first phase of the “framework of strong, sustainable and balanced growth” was completed.

Under the theme of “Shared growth Beyond Crisis”, the fifth G-20 Summit to be held in Seoul between Nov.10-11, will seek further progress towards a strong, sustainable and balanced growth of the global economy.

Experts opine that the Seoul Summit will try to move forward the G-20 reform agenda relating to financial regulation, etcetera and its development plank will enrich the G-20 role as the premier forum of international economic cooperation by adding a development dimension to the G-20 activities. By Ravinder Singh Robin (ANI)