South African president "quite pleased" with G20 summit results

Source: Xinhua | 04-03-2009 09:41

LONDON, April 2 (Xinhua) -- South African President Kgalema Motlanthe said on Thursday he was "quite pleased" with results of the Group of 20 (G20) Summit, which hammered out a massive plan involving 1.1 trillion U.S. dollars aimed at getting the world out of the current crisis.

Speaking to reporters after the conclusion of the one-day summit in London, Motlanthe said that the leaders had agreed to protect financing for developing countries and pledged to be committed to concluding the Doha Round world trade talks as soon as possible.

While there is a recognition that poorer developing countries offer an opportunity for growth, Motlanthe said that "there is a commitment to ensure that developing countries receive finances particularly in infrastructure."

South Africa is the only African nation in the G20 group of industrial and emerging economies.

Meanwhile, Motlanthe called for a monitoring of the implementation of the actions agreed upon at the London Summit in order to overcome the crisis in the shortest time possible.

The G20 leaders agreed on injecting 1.1 trillion U.S. dollars to international financial institutions to revive the world economy, voiced firm opposition to protectionism to ensure open and free trade, and reached consensus on taking concrete actions to tighten banking regulations.

"By acting together to fulfils these pledges we will bring the world economy out of recession and prevent a crisis like this from recurring in the future," said the Leaders' Statement issued after the summit.

Of the 1.1 trillion dollars, 500 billion dollars will go to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for it to lend to countries hit hard by the financial crisis, 250 billion dollars will be used to support a new Special Drawing Rights (SDR), 100 billion dollars will support additional lending by the multilateral development banks, and 250 billion dollars will be devoted to guarantee trade finance.

Editor:Zhang Pengfei