The G20 Summit is slated to be held in November this year under the Indonesian Presidency, which was handed over to President Joko Widodo on October 31, 2021 by Prime Minister Mario Draghi (the Italian presidency) at the G20 Summit in Rome, Italy. As an international and multilateral strategic forum, G20 brings together leaders from 20 of the most powerful and emerging economies of the world. Collectively, these economies represent 80% of the world’s GDP, 75% of global exports, and 60% of the global population, reflecting the power and influence of the conversations and discussions in this forum.
While G20 started as a platform for discussion of economic policies and issues to facilitate global economic growth, over the years the scope has expanded to include other areas of development that directly or indirectly economic growth. With Covid-19 impacting practically every economy across the globe, the world was faced with another crisis, one which requires collaborative efforts to drive recovery.
G20, 2022: Recover Together, Recover Stronger
Highlighting the impact the pandemic had worldwide and the remnants of which can still be felt strikingly, Indonesia chose the theme of ‘Recover Together, Recover Stronger’ for the G20 Summit 2022. The rationale lies in the need for the most powerful and emerging economies to work in a joint and inclusive manner to navigate a path to economic, political and health recovery for a stronger world ahead. With a focus on collectively finding solutions for recovery, the Indonesian Presidency has identified three key areas which require immediate interventions, including healthcare architecture, digital transformation and energy transition. Together, these three will help countries with democratization of healthcare to augment access, bridge the digital divide to facilitate inclusive growth and foster sustainable energy transition to move towards a net zero economy.
Global Health Architecture
Covid-19 illustrates that the current global health architecture is broken and skewed, especially, when it comes to sailing through a pandemic. Thus, G20 will focus on the importance of global cooperation to determine more robust health standards and collective action to build resilience for the future. Some of the key focus areas for global health architecture for the Summit will be:
- Fostering the resilience of global health systems to make them more inclusive, equitable and responsive to crises
- Facilitating preparedness with transformative infrastructure which will require cooperation from multiple organizations, groups, etc.
- Uncovering ways to close the funding and supply gaps for vaccines for Covid-19, specifically across developing countries, as well as boosting capacity to administer them, with a focus on expanding the ecosystem to deal with any future disruptions
Digital Transformation
With digital transformation becoming the mainstay and a key driver for economic growth, it is imperative for countries and regions to come together to facilitate common digital prosperity. Here, G20 Summit seeks to address the inequalities that exist in the digital age or the digital divide, which is a reflection of the larger socio-economic inequalities, and how this digital divide must be bridged. Key discussion highlights will include:
- Importance of digitalization to facilitate inclusive and collaborative growth
- Role of G20 in fostering inclusive digital transformation to bridge the digital divide
- Intersection of digital and economic issues with acceleration of MSMEs into the digital ecosystem
- Building digital capabilities, skills and literacy, especially for women, to promote their participation in the digital economy
Sustainable Energy Transition
Finally, the third key priority stands on the global need to transition to more sustainable energy sources and consumption. With a focus on carbon neutrality and net zero energy goals, economies need to focus more on SDGs relevant to energy. G20 will have a major role to play in facilitating energy security, accessibility, and affordability. The forum will focus on:
- Facilitating energy security by transitioning towards cleaner sources of energy
- Creating a sustainable and green future, which can better handle climate change concerns, and address its impact on other areas of local and global development
- Focus on themes like securing energy accessibility, leveraging smart energy technology, promoting energy financing, etc.
At StrategINK, we believe that G20 Summit 2022, will bring out new prospects and opportunities via investments, policy changes, etc. for economies to bridge the digital divide and leverage the resulting inclusive growth to power democratization of the global health architecture and sustainable energy transition. This is an opportune platform for leaders from across the globe to create a shared digital agenda and deliberate on the best practices for digital adoption across different sectors of the economy, including healthcare, education, energy, financial services, etc. This shared agenda can then cascade into national and industry priorities to create widespread digital inclusion and impact.
Impact of G20 Presidency for Indonesia
In addition to being at the center of some of the most important areas of discussion of the global economy, the G20 Summit brings several benefits for its host country in 2022, Indonesia.
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- First, the inflow of delegates from all over the world will bring in foreign exchange earnings, strengthening the economic position of the country. Previous countries which have hosted the G20 Summit have seen a steady increase in foreign earnings from delegates with a high revenue generation.
- Second, the Summit will give Indonesia a chance to direct international discussion towards recovery and its priority on the three pressing issues which it considers integral for economic recovery post the pandemic.
- Third, this will enable Indonesia to create a unique position for itself in the world map. Indonesia can showcase its achievements in diverse spheres and position itself as an emerging global leader, across aspects, including:
- 70% internet penetration
- 64% mobile internet usage
- $146 billion predicted value of Indonesia’s digital economy in 2025
- Vision of becoming the world’s 5th to 7th largest economy a reality by 2045
- Fourth, the Summit will also give Indonesia the opportunity to open up its local tourism and markets to facilitate post pandemic resurgence in different sectors of the economy.
- Finally, Indonesia can leverage the Summit as a means to push its agenda for cooperation and collaboration, thus illustrating its stance as being open to global trade, exchanges, etc.
The Summit will not only play a role in creating a multiplier effect for the Indonesian economy, but will set the stage for global interventions and actions to leverage technology for health and energy, by bridging the digital divide.
Stay tuned to this space for the latest updates on G20 Summit 2022 and the implications from the discussions for economies, businesses and business leaders.
