Global Business Calls on G20 to Deliver on Growth and Employment

g20Business has called on world leaders gathering in Antalya, Turkey for the 2015 G20 Summit to commit to a four-point agenda to revitalize GDP growth and kick-start job creation across the world’s largest economies. USCIB members contributed to ongoing work by the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC), the International Organization of Employers (IOE) and the Business & Industry Advisory Committee to the OECD (BIAC) to inform the G20 process.

World leaders arrive in Antalya with the global economy at an apparent crossroads: GDP growth remains sluggish and youth unemployment stands at a record global average of over 13 percent. Worryingly, trade flows, which have historically been an important driver of growth and job creation, recorded an unanticipated 6 percent drop through the first half of this year.

Against this backdrop, CEOs from the ICC-led B20 International Business Advisory Council have outlined four key areas for urgent action:

  1. Ratify and implement the World Trade Organization’s Trade Facilitation Agreement (TFA)
  2. Take concrete actions to create more opportunities for women and young people in the labor market
  3. Establish country-specific infrastructure strategies to boost investment in much needed infrastructure projects worldwide
  4. Improve SME access to finance

ICC has responded to the release of the G20 Leaders’ communiqué at the conclusion of the summit. Read more on the ICC’s website.

Addressing the G20 heads of state and government on Sunday BIAC Chairman Phil O’ Reilly called for structural reforms for dynamic and inclusive labor markets.

O’Reilly underlined the “pressing need” for the G20 heads of state and government to adopt predictable and productivity-enhancing structural policies, both in product and labor markets.

“What we are really talking about are policies that promote open and competitive markets for investment and trade, access to finance, a predictable regulatory environment, flexible labor markets and measures to support innovation and entrepreneurship,” said O’Reilly. He noted overriding need for business confidence to be strengthened in order for investment to flow.

With a focus on policies for job creation, O’Reilly identified the key areas the G20 Leaders had to address to stimulate private sector employment. Measures included removing barriers to starting, operating and growing a business; creating easy-to-understand, employment-friendly labor laws; promoting a variety of forms of employment to allow maximum opportunities for hiring; decreasing the burden of non-wage labor costs and creating an attractive regulatory framework for apprenticeship systems.

As the world looks ahead to the G20 presidency transferring to China for 2016, there was a clear message from the B20 that the Leaders could not take a business as usual approach to employment policy: “A sense of urgency must now underpin the implementation of the previous commitments of G20 governments,” O’Reilly concluded.

Staff Contact:   Alice Slayton Clark

Senior VP, Trade, Investment, and Digital Policy
Tel: 202.682.0051

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