Chinese President Hu Jintao attends the Group of Twenty (G-20) summit in Cannes, France, Nov. 3, 2011. (Xinhua/Lan Hongguang)

 
CANNES, France, Nov. 3 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Hu Jintao on Thursday urged the world`s major economies to work together to promote growth and financial stability.

"It is imperative that we stand on a higher plane, transcend differences on specific issues, move beyond short-term considerations, and jointly seek ways to overcome the crisis and sustain development," Hu told the Group of 20 (G20) summit here.

"At this critical moment, the G20 must work to address the key problems, boost market confidence, defuse risks and meet challenges and promote global economic growth and financial stability," said Hu.

As the premier forum for international economic cooperation, the G20 must continue to demonstrate the spirit of standing together in times of adversity and pursuing win-win cooperation, he said.

The Chinese president said "the current world economic situation deserves our high attention," cautioning the global recovery is fraught with instability and uncertainty and faces growing risks and challenges.

Some major economies are experiencing economic slowdown and some countries are facing acute sovereign debt problems, said Hu.

He also cited volatility in the international financial markets, and high inflationary pressure in emerging markets.

Hu put forward a five-point proposal on what G20 nations need to do to tide over the crisis.

First, the countries should ensure growth while paying attention to balance. Given the serious risks facing the global economy and continued market volatility, ensuring growth and promoting stability should be the top priority, he said.

"We should introduce new and strong measures to ensure that fiscal and monetary policies are fully implemented and that funding is channeled into the real economy to boost production and employment."

Second, the G20 nations should strengthen unity and send a strong signal to the world as there is widespread panic and acute lack of confidence in the markets, said Hu.

He urged G20 members to strengthen consultation and coordination, tackle sovereign debt risks, regulate cross-border capital flow, put the fluctuation of commodity prices under control, mitigate global inflationary pressure and make sure that the economic policies pursued by various countries do not offset each other.

Third, global economic governance should be improved through reform, Hu said.

The international financial crisis has highlighted the deficiencies in the global economic governance system, said Hu.

"Major efforts should be made to reform and improve the international monetary system, international trading system and commodity pricing mechanism," said the Chinese president.
 
 He asked for continued reform of the International Monetary Fund, calling for the expansion of the use of the special drawing rights, reform of the IMF currency basket and the buildup of a new international reserve currency system.
He warned against trade protectionism and urged efforts to curb speculation so as to stabilize commodity prices and supply and demand.

Fourth, the countries should strive for progress through innovation, said Hu.

"Innovation is an inexhaustible source of human progress. To overcome the crisis, we need to make pioneering efforts," said Hu.

"We should improve and innovate our thinking, system and mode for advancing economic and social development, and strike a balance in such important relationships as those between government and market, labor and capital, production and consumption, and equity and efficiency."

Fifth, the G20 countries should help developing economies to grow, said Hu.

In the final analysis, the most serious bottleneck in world economic development is the inability of developing countries to achieve full development, said Hu

The imbalance between developed and developing countries has created a vicious circle where underdevelopment leads to backwardness and backwardness hinders development, thus hampering sustained and steady growth of the global economy, he said.

"We should continue to increase the voice of emerging markets and developing countries in global economic governance and create an enabling institutional environment for their development."

Hu pledged that his country will provide more help to other developing countries.

Between 2010 and 2012, China will provide Africa with 10 billion U.S. dollars in lending of a preferential nature, the bulk of which will go to infrastructure development, he said.

Between 2011 and 2015, China will build 200 infrastructure projects in clean energy and environmental protection in other developing countries, he announced.

China will give zero-tariff treatment to 97 percent of the tariff items of exports to China from the least developed countries that have diplomatic relations with China, he said.

The G20 summit, which began on Thursday, would concentrate on the promotion of strong, sustainable and balanced global economic growth, as well as global governance, development and financial regulation.

The G20 bloc, established in September 1999, was designed to bring together important industrialized and developing economies to discuss key issues concerning the global economy.

Chinese President Hu Jintao (5th L, first row) and leaders of other countries and international organizations pose for a group photo in Cannes, France, Nov. 3, 2011. Hu attended the Group of Twenty (G20) summit in Cannes on Thursday. (Xinhua/Lan Hongguang)