Global financial summit in Paris aims to unite countries

A global financial summit aiming to address common challenges including climate change, fighting inequality and protecting biodiversity to achieve sustainable development is about to take place on Thursday in Paris.

The two-day Summit for a New Global Financial Pact will gather nearly 300 representatives, including heads of State and Government, leaders of international financial institutions and representatives of civil society and the private sector, to discuss reforms on the international financial system so as to deal with the challenges. Premier Li Qiang will attend the summit.

French president Emmanuel Macron said in a written article on Tuesday that multiple overlapping shocks have strained countries’ abilities to address hunger, poverty and inequality; build resilience; and invest in their futures.

Debt vulnerabilities in low- and middle-income countries present a major hurdle to their economic recovery and to their ability to make critical long-term investments, he said.

Leaders of diverse economies are united in a determination to forge a new global consensus, he said, adding that they will use the summit as a decisive political moment to recover development gains lost in recent years and to accelerate progress toward Sustainable Development Goals, including just transitions.

At a press briefing on Monday, Jean-Marc Fenet, minister counselor for economic affairs at the French embassy in Beijing, said that four working groups have been preparing for topics of the summit for months.

The topics are: improving the existing international financial institutions, financing by the private sectors, investing in sustainable infrastructures and innovative assumption to mobilize additional resource for countries vulnerable to climate change, according to him.

The summit is not about "a small club against the rest of the world", but "to have everybody on board around the table", Fenet said.

"We are very happy and very honored that Premier Li Qiang will represent China at the highest level (to attend the summit)..... it is a very positive signal," he said.

China has become a huge financial power in the world and nobody could imagine that Beijing is not on board around this table, he said.

"Maybe we have different approaches, but the main aspect of this summit is to come together, discuss and try to find solutions together,"said Myriam Pavageau, deputy head of mission at the French Embassy in China.

Global common good is an important topic in bilateral talks between France and China, and France believes that China has already played a major role and can play even further in finding common solutions to global challenges such as climate change and health issues, she said.

"We would like the June summit to be a catalysis to provide concrete results and raise ambition building on past achievements," Pavageau said.