B20 Global Business Leaders Announce their Prioritised Recommendations For Economic Recovery and Growth

- Mexico is the first Latin American country and only the second emerging economy after South Korea to hold the B20 and G20 Presidencies

MEXICO CITY, June 6, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- The following is being released today by Marca Pais – Imagen de Mexico:

Global business leaders from the world's twenty largest economies, also known as the Business 20 or B20, announced their prioritised recommendations and commitments to the G20 heads of state regarding the world's most pressing economic challenges. These prioritised recommendations will be driving the conversation between public and private sector at the B20 Summit and will be setting the tone for the G20 Summit at Los Cabos, Mexico in June. Mexico is the first Latin American country and only the second emerging economy after South Korea to hold the B20 and G20 Presidencies.

In a B20 press release, Alejandro Ramirez, chair of the organising committee of the B20 and chief executive officer of Cinepolis, one of the world's largest movie theatre groups, said:

"Extensive structural reforms are required and international trade must become the engine for growth in order to achieve economic recovery, improve competitiveness, and successfully address today's employment crisis. Businesses are at the heart of job creation which is why the B20 exists and plays a critical role in formulating our global economic policy – while further building a green economy."

The B20 Under the Mexican Presidency and Mexico's Contribution

Under the Mexican Presidency, the B20 has been organised into eight task forces: Green Growth, Information and Communications Technologies (ICT) and Innovation, Food Security, Trade and Investment, Employment, Financing for Growth and Development, Transparency and Anti-Corruption and Advocacy and Impact.

The eighth task force - Advocacy and Impact – runs across all the other seven task forces and is designed to track past recommendations and ensure follow-up action.  This creation highlights Mexico's determination to ensure that the B20 recommendations are specific, implementable, prioritised and that action plans are clearly defined.

Under the Mexican Presidency, the B20 has prioritised its recommendations – a first in the history of the B20. While businesses act as job generators, the B20 states in its press release that, "government needs to create the environment needed for businesses to operate and grow. And the Mexican Presidency [of the B20 and the G20] will become the platform for global progress."

B20 Prioritised Recommendations:

Green Growth

• Transform global financing flows for green growth by targeting public financing to dramatically scale up private investment.

ICT and Innovation

• Enable Broadband for All: Promote the availability of affordable broadband services and devices to allow populations to connect.
• Promote social inclusion through ICT: Promote the creation of content and applications for the public good and foster the development of required capabilities for their deployment.

Food Security

• Significantly enhance public and private sector investment to achieve a 50 per cent increase in agricultural production and productivity by 2030.
• Strengthen national-level food security programs supported by public-private partnerships.

Trade and Investment

• Push for more rapid progress on specific items on the WTO negotiating agenda on a priority basis to promote the long-term interests of developing and developed economies.
• Lead by example in rejecting measures that restrict trade and investment and promoting measures that enhance them.
• Reiterate support for open cross-border investment as an essential contributor to growth, development and job creation.
• Take concrete steps to advance an international investment agenda.

Employment

• Facilitate growth of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and innovative business models.
• Scale internships and apprenticeships.

Financing for Growth and Development

• Recognise the low risk and value of trade finance for emerging economies and take action to reverse the unintended consequences of the capital and liquidity treatment of trade finance.
• Support efforts on financial inclusion for SMEs through better provision of data on SME credit risk guarantee programs, and a unified national agency that promotes this segment.

Transparency and Anti-Corruption

• Streamline public procurement processes to address the demand-side of bribery, and encourage and offer incentives of business action against corruption.
• The business community should increase its participation in the collective action and sector initiatives to encourage cross-fertilisation through the sharing of best practices and training materials and to engage SMEs through supply chains.
• Governments and the business community should develop a platform of dialogue to promote participation in integrity pacts, support efforts to raise SME business integrity standards and identify good practices to facilitate active cooperative between companies and enforcement authorities.

To learn more about the B20 Summit 2012, please visit http://www.b20.org/