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Int'l press center to open at Strelnya ahead of G20 summit

The press center, intended for 750 journalists, will function round the clock throughout the summit
Photo ITAR-TASS
Photo ITAR-TASS

ST PETERSBURG, September 4 (Itar-Tass) - The first activities will take place at Strelny outside St Petersburg on Wednesday at the site of the G20 summit which is due to open officially on September 5. An International press center will open in the Palace of Congresses at noon.

The press center, intended for 750 journalists, will function round the clock throughout the summit. Journalists will be the first to appreciate the interior design and technical equipment of the G20 site, and try out a waterway transportation line which has been established between the city's Seaside Facade passenger terminal and the pier in Strelnya for bringing participants in the summit to the venue.

A roundtable meeting on the theme of "The Significance of G20, G8, and BRICS to Russia in Expert View" will be held at the press center on Wednesday, and there will be briefings on the results of work of "civil" and "youth" G20 forums. Their participants will tell journalists about recommendations they referred to the leaders of G20 countries.

Within the framework of the G20 summit, a meeting of G20 Deputy Ministers of Finance will be also held on Wednesday. The preparation of a final wording of the leaders' Joint Statement will be the main subject of discussion at the meeting. The Joint Statement is to be adopted on September 6 at a meeting of G20 Heads of State and Government.

RF Deputy Finance Minister Sergei Storchak told journalists that the Deputy Finance Ministers and the sherpas had arrived in St Petersburg on September 2 and immediately began to work on the text of a Final Statement. "Attitudes as to what may be included and what should not be made part of the Statement are certain to clash. Most often the most interesting things happen precisely over here," he said.

Storchak did not rule it out that the "financial G20" may recommend that the leaders come forward with a strong statement about the consequences of the curtailment of the quantitative easing programme (QE3) by the United States. "Therefore, by evening of September 4 it will be clear whether there will be a strong statement on QE3 or the Ministers will still recommend the leaders to keep the situation neutral, without special comments, since comments sometimes engender excessive expections and excessive volatility," the RF Deputy Minister pointed out.

Parallel to the G20 leaders, the "financial G20" is planning to discuss the future of the association. The G20 Finance Minidterd have invitrd RF ex-Minister of Finance Alexei Kudrin to make a report on the theme of "The Future of G20. A Detached View". "From him, we expect a fresh view on the G20 work," Storchak said.