Symposium in Seoul to Discuss Future of G20 Summit

The Dong-A Ilbo, Korea Development Institute and the U.S.-based Brookings Institution will host the G20 Seoul International Symposium at the Seoul COEX Tuesday and Wednesday, a month ahead of the G20 summit in Seoul.

The symposium is the first international forum seeking to define the status of the summit and its future tasks. The summit has emerged as a global decision-making mechanism since the eruption of the global financial crisis in 2008.

Hyun Oh-seok, president of the state-run institute, said, "Though the G20 summit has become an important milestone in overcoming the global crisis, efforts to shed light on its contributions have been short. The outcome of this symposium will lay the theoretical grounds for building the future of the G20 summit."

Under the official sponsorship of the Presidential Committee for the G20 Summit, the symposium will invite world renowned scholars and senior officials from international organizations and governments of major economies.

The institute prepared presentation materials with Brookings, a U.S. non-profit organization for public policy, to be made into a book for distribution right before the summit in November.

Under the theme "Institutionalization of the G20 Summit: From Crisis Management to Global Mediation," the symposium will discuss how the summit can mediate and resolve global economic issues and take root as a premier forum for international economic cooperation.

The eight-session symposium will also discuss how the summit is more efficient in tackling global economic issues than the G8, highlighting that G20 members include not only industrialized countries but also semi-advanced and developing economies.

Participants will discuss the past and future of the G20 as well as major agenda and issues to be brought up in the November summit. The sessions "Global Crisis, Financial Reform and the G20," "The G20 and Development Agenda," and "The G20 and International Organizations" will give insights on how these issues will be handled at the summit.

Stimulating public interest in the G20 will also be discussed. In the sessions "Comparison of Public Opinions of G20 Countries" and "G20 and Leadership, Media and Society," prominent journalists from all over the world will discuss the media`s role in the G20`s setup.

turtle@donga.com