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Russia takes rotating presidency of G20 Sat

The G20 group is an informal forum of the world’s largest economies

MOSCOW, December 1 (Itar-Tass) —— Russia has taken the rotating presidency of the G20 for twelve months to come. The year’s main event will be a G20 summit in St. Petersburg on September 5-6. The first events in the group are due in Moscow already this month.

“The G20 group is an informal forum of the world’s largest economies. The participating countries account for 90 percent of the world’s GDP and 80 percent of the world trade. At present nineteen countries and the European Union enjoy the status of the G20 permanent members. Alongside Russia the group unites Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Britain, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Canada, China, Mexico, Saudi Arabia, the United States, Turkey, France, South Africa, South Korea and Japan.

The task of the presiding country is to arrange for a meeting of the leaders and also to systematically prepare and coordinate with its partners all major decisions related to the development of the world economy and featuring high on the list of its own and its partners’ priorities.

It is expected that on December 11 there will be a meeting of international research centers (Think20), which is to produce practical recommendations concerning global governance, better working processes inside the G20 and the search for ways of enhancing economic growth.

G20 sherpas – special commissioners of the participating countries – will meet on December 12. The sherpas do important planning work, conduct negotiations throughout the process of preparations for the summit, coordinate the agenda, search for consensus at the highest level, draft the declaration and other accompanying documents. The chief of the presidential experts department, Ksenia Yudayeva, represents Russia.

Also on December 20 there will be meetings of Civil20 and Business20, where the leading representatives of civil society and business community will consider crucial issues of the global agenda and a plan for their work within the framework of Russia’s presidency of the G20.

On December 13 a conference on the promotion of economic growth and sustainable development will formally present the priorities and program for Russia’s presidency. The chairs of Think20, Business20 and Civil20 will review the results of the just-held discussions. The coordinators of Youth20 and Labor20 will make reports.

The official website of the Russian presidency of the G20 will open at 12:00 Moscow time at www.g20russia.ru.

Russia has taken over the G20 presidency from Mexico, and in 2014 it will hand it over to Australia. The G20 summit in 2014 will be held in Brisbane