Gregory Chin, acting director of CIGI’s Development Program, says Asia offers unique experiences and resources to lead a globally coordinated effort of “benefit sharing” that can help address global imbalances. He urges the G20 to contribute to this goal through policy actions.

Adding development to the G20’s agenda marks a new stage in the evolution of the “premier forum” for managing the world economy, says CIGI senior fellow Gregory Chin. The proposed action plan integrates elements of the traditional Western development model with the ideas of new donors such as China and draws on the experience of Korea, the Seoul summit host.

The G20 leaders will grapple in Seoul with how to deflect the risk of another downturn in the global economy. CIGI expert Daniel Schwanen suggests there is much that G20 leaders can do because national interests often coincide with the collective global interest.

Having lost the “fellowship of the lifeboat” prevailing during the acute phase of the global financial crisis, the G20 countries are increasingly at odds on some issues and in search of legitimacy for their new institution. Differences exist in their diagnoses of the global recession, in their prescriptions for recovery and, in particular, on exchange rate policies, observes CIGI senior fellow Barry Carin. He suggests ways the G20 can become more inclusive of the needs of nations within and outside its membership.

The G20 has shown itself capable of robust action in the wake of the international financial crisis. Now it needs to advance its role beyond the immediacy of crisis response. In the third instalment of CIGI’s G20 papers series, Distinguished Fellow Andrew F. Cooper and Senior Fellow Colin Bradford Jr. examine the G20 process as it moves from crisis response to economic management.