MOSCOW, September 20 (RIA Novosti) - Finance ministers from G20 nations are holding a two-day summit starting Saturday in Cairns, Australia, to agree on a set of policies aimed at bolstering the global economy.
"We are determined to make the world a better place, to grow the global economy, to create more and better paying jobs, to build the infrastructure to ensure children get better quality water, education and healthcare," Australian Treasurer Joe Hockey, who is chairing the meeting, was quoted as saying by The Malaysian Insider.
Hockey has received more than 900 submissions from participating countries on how to achieve the targeted growth. The submissions included accelerating infrastructure investment, strengthening financial reforms and opening economies to free trade, according to the news agency.
The ministers, federal central governors and the US Federal Reserve want to prepare their plan in time for the G20 Annual Leaders Summit in Brisbane in November.
The plan includes achieving a total GDP growth of two percent in the G20 member states over the next five years.
But the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), which also handed in its proposal on Saturday, said that boosting the global economy is more complicated than presumed. The organization downgraded the global economy growth forecast earlier this week citing the slow recovery among nations using the euro.
The OECD also named the conflicts in the Middle East and Ukraine and the independence referendum in Scotland among the areas of risk.
In other news, Hockey dismissed speculation about Russian President Vladimir Putin being excluded from the November annual leaders summit amid the situation in Ukraine prior to the Saturday talks.
"G20 is an economic forum, not a political forum," Hockey was cited as saying by ABC Australia adding that all members of the G20 should attend the meeting.
The G20 is a forum for the governments and central bank governors from 19 individual major world economies and the European Union represented by the European Commission and the European Central Bank.
