国际英语新闻:Australian PM pledges to meet growth goal in five years at G20 summit

BRISBANE, Australia, Nov. 15 (Xinhua) -- Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott said here on Saturday the objective to boost world growth by more than 2 percent by 2018 and create more jobs would be attained through joint efforts of G20 members.

"We believe that as a result of the work that we will do, the world can grow by more than 2 percent more over the next five years than would otherwise be the case and that is millions of jobs and trillions of dollars in extra production," Abbott said while delivering a speech at the opening of the First G20 Plenary Session.

The Australian prime minister emphasized on free trade, more infrastructure, structural reforms and fiscal consolidation to follow through on their promises.

"There are problems in the Middle East, there are problems in Eastern Europe, there are terrible problems in West Africa. Our growth has been fragile, but the message that should come from us over these next two days is a message of hope and optimism," he said.

At the finance ministers meeting held earlier on Saturday, G20 members decided to fund the massive infrastructure needed around the world over the next few decades through a better partnership with the private sector.

Structural reforms at the domestic front and collective actions at the international level to remove imbalance and distortions in individual economies were also among the major topics discussed.

The G20 economies account for around 85 percent of the world's gross domestic product, 75 per cent of the world's trade, and 65 percent of the world's population.

Apart from economic issues, the leaders also talked about the fight against Ebola and agreed to address the terrible human and economic impact of the outbreak in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.

The governments and people of Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone are making tremendous efforts to fight the outbreak, with the support of the African Union and other African countries, according to the G20 Leaders' Brisbane Statement on Ebola.

"G20 members are committed to do what is necessary to ensure that the international effort can extinguish the outbreak and address its medium-term economic and humanitarian costs," read the statement.