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Finance minister to lead Saudi delegation to G20 summit

By By GHAZANFAR ALI KHAN RIYADH: On behalf of Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah, a Saudi delegation led by Finance Minister Ibrahim Al-Assaf will attend the G20 summit in France on Thursday.

The summit will focus on the global financial situation, on helping Europe move toward a long-term solution for its debt crisis and on the role of major economies like China to work in conjunction with other G20 member states to put the global economy back on the right track.

" Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency ( SAMA ) Gov. Mohammed Al-Jasser will also accompany Al-Assaf to the Cannes summit," said a SAMA official here Tuesday.

The summit, said French Ambassador Bertrand Besancenot, will provide an important platform for G20 member states as well as fast-developing nations like Saudi Arabia to share views and to chalk out a future course of action.

He pointed out that there would be bilateral talks between senior Saudi and French officials on the sidelines of the summit. In an interview with Al Arabiya television that was aired Tuesday, Al-Jasser said that the new European measures to halt the euro zone's sovereign debt crisis would restore confidence. The SAMA chief said that he was "less worried" about Europe now than he was last week, and that the Gulf states are learning from what is happening there.

The role of the Kingdom or for that matter any other country is important, said Al-Jasser. Saudi Arabia is also the only G20 country that belongs to OPEC. But, Saudi Arabia's central bank recently made it clear that it is not interested in buying distressed or speculative assets such as troubled European debt and gold. In fact, the OPEC member's banks are well positioned to withstand the euro zone crisis.

Saudi Arabia's participation in world economic affairs is increasing consistently. "Its stake in the IMF reaches 2.8 percent at present at a value estimated at 6,985 million special rights units (6.985 billion units) with each special drawing right unit worth SR5.89," according to a report published recently.

Meanwhile, a statement released by the G20 office in Cannes, said that US President Barack Obama would attend the G20 summit with hopes of trying to convince other G20 countries that America's economic and political problems can be overcome.

But the Europe's debt crisis, which recently led to riots in the streets of Athens, is likely to lead the agenda, said the statement, adding last week's agreement by the EU to enlarge its bailout fund and to cut Greece's debt in half will likely ease some of the pressure on the G20 leaders.

"Efforts to coax China into throwing the euro zone a lifeline will dominate this week's G20 summit and leave Beijing holding the aces as world leaders try to restore market confidence with pledges to reduce economic imbalances," the statement said.

Heads of state and finance chiefs from the 20 leading economies want to use the Nov. 3-4 meeting in Cannes to send a message that Europe has its debt crisis under control and any risks to the world economy are being taken care of. But, bold action needs to be taken at the G20 summit this week to stave off the threat of another recession in Europe, the statement noted. There is also a need for the G20 nations to do more on the financial crisis gripping some of the nations across the world.

© Arab News 2011