CRI听力:G20 Meeting Participants Stresses Structural Reforms

Christine Lagarde, managing director of the International Monetary Fund, says China is not the only economy in need of structural reforms as they are fundamental for the success of every G20 economy.

lagarde says the reforms are not only necessary, but also need to be broad, bold and accelerated.

"I believe that we need to realize the expected pay off from structural reform earlier rather than later regular pace. So we call for broad, bold and accelerated structural reforms. We ask the G20 countries to speed up the implementation of structural reforms that they commit to. We are not ask for reinvention of anything. We are simply saying commitments have been made, they should be implemented thoroughly, broadly, boldly together."

Finance ministers and central bank governors from the G20 economies gathered in Shanghai on Friday for the two-day meeting.

The event takes place amid volatile financial world markets as there have been major market swings in China, Europe and Japan since the beginning of the year.

Describing the global recovery as "disappointing," the IMF chief says the need for reforms has become more pressing.

Echoing her point is Chinese Finance Minister Lou Jiwei.

The official notes that middle- and long-term structural challenges are the deeper problems affecting the global economic recovery
 
"In particular, slowing growth rates of major economies and the total productivity and the potential of decreasing spending capacity become fundamental reasons that restrain the global economy from a strong recovery."

Lou says that deepening structural reforms is fundamental to a sustainable economic recovery.

"First, we should enhance the 'Top-Level Design' of economic reform. Considering situations and developments in different countries, the G20 should find the greatest common divisor on fundamental fields and principles in reforms, find out priorities and common principles in the structural reforms. This will help G20 member countries to promote and enforce structural reform and to maximize spillover effect of the reform."

The G20 -- a group of 19 countries and the European Union -- was created in the wake of the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis and was upgraded to a summit of leaders in 2008 to tackle the global financial crisis.

Zhou Qiangwu is the deputy director of the Asia-Pacific Finance and Development Center from the Chinese Ministry of Finance.

"The G20 is now in its transformation, from crisis response to long-term governance, which I believe will further strengthen its role in global policy coordination and cooperation. We decided to have the discussion of structural reform prioritized in the agenda, aiming to advance the reform and reach concrete goals during China's presidency."