Deputy Prime Minister Sang-mok Choi attended the 2nd Group of Twenty (G20) Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors Meeting on April 17 to 18. The meeting consisted of two sessions: Sustainable Finance and International Financial Architecture.
In Session one, which discussed the topic of climate change transition including carbon neutrality, Deputy Prime Minister Choi emphasized three areas in promoting collaboration in climate financing: private sector, multilateral climate funds, and developing countries.
First, Deputy Prime Minister Choi emphasized the need to actively utilize private capital in securing climate funds, stressing the importance of improving private investment systems as well as incentives such as risk sharing. Second, the Deputy Prime Minister pointed out the necessity to enhance the efficiency of multilateral climate funds and expand their funding scale. Third, the Deputy Prime Minister called for advanced countries to encourage capacity building in developing countries by sharing their experiences and promoting the transfer of technology that helps to reduce carbon emissions.
In particular, Deputy Prime Minister Choi noted that Korea will mobilize ‘venture capital’ in the amount of 23 trillion won for the clean energy sector aiming to share the risks in the private sector. The Deputy Prime Minister also pledged support for multilateral climate funds going forward, following last year’s declaration of a $300 million contribution to the Green Climate Fund. He also highlighted that the government would assist developing countries to strengthen their capacity to reduce carbon emissions and to bridge the knowledge gap through the expansion of the Carbon Free Alliance and Knowledge Sharing Program.
In Session two, where the reform of the international financial architecture was debated, Deputy Prime Minister Choi, as co-chair of the session, stressed three solidarity pillars in his keynote address: development, inclusiveness, and financial stability. As part of an effort to support developing countries, the Deputy Prime Minister emphasized the importance of multilateral development banks’ (MDBs) role and called for cooperation to establish a roadmap for MDB reform. With regard to solidarity toward inclusiveness, the Deputy Prime Minister asked for a swift implementation of debt relief for vulnerable countries and the allocation of Special Drawing Rights (SDR) by the IMF. In order to achieve financial stability, the Deputy Prime Minister requested the proactive management of global risks and policy coordination, while underscoring the voluntary efforts of developing countries in financial market reform.
In particular, Deputy Prime Minister Choi called for policy coordination among G20 countries to minimize the negative spillover effects on the global economy in response to increased global uncertainty due to widening gap in interest rates among major economies as well as geopolitical tensions. The Deputy Prime Minister also introduced the Korean government’s Corporate Value-up program and initiatives to improve market structure, including the extension of foreign exchange trading hours.