Action not words needed to boost growth, Australia tells G20

Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott delivers his keynote speech during the B20 Summit in Sydney on July 17, 2014. Over 350 business leaders have gathered in Sydney for the 2014 B20 Summit to discuss and determine policy recommendations ahead of the
Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott delivers his keynote speech during the B20 Summit in Sydney on July 17, 2014. Over 350 business leaders have gathered in Sydney for the 2014 B20 Summit to discuss and determine policy recommendations ahead of the G20 Leaders Meeting in Brisbane later this year. -- PHOTO: AFP

SYDNEY (AFP) - Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott called Thursday for G20 economies to adopt more ambitious growth targets, urging leaders not to "waste each other's time" with a talk-fest.

Abbott told more than 380 business leaders from the grouping attending a two-day B20 summit in Sydney that the world's economies were still "in the shadow of the (financial) crisis" and "action, not words" was needed to boost growth.

"The G20 will deliver a three-page communique in plain language because we need to talk not at length about our good intentions, but precisely what we would do to put good intentions into practice," the Australian leader said.

"I made a promise at Davos this year. I said that the G20 had to be so much more than a talk-fest.

"Otherwise the leaders of the world's largest and most representative economies could be accused of wasting each other's time." Abbott told media later that Australia was asking G20 nations to push harder on their growth plans, so they could meet their pledge during a February finance ministers' meeting to add 2.0 percent to GDP over the next five years.

"It seems that the measures in each individual country's national plan collectively would add little over 1.0 percent to growth over the next five years, and we're going back to each country asking them to be a little bit more ambitious," he said.

- Free trade push -

The prime minister emphasised the need for freer international trade, saying "no country has ever taxed or subsidised its way to prosperity".

His comments were echoed by Trade Minister Andrew Robb, who said the deal struck by 160 members of the World Trade Organisation at a Bali summit in December - which streamlines the global flow of goods - needed to be implemented by all countries.

"The pursuit of ambitious bilateral, regional and plurilateral trade agreements should also be embraced as they are important building blocks in the global trading system," he said in a column for The Australian Financial Review.

"As Australia's experience shows, trading, open nations are also prosperous ones."

The WTO said on Thursday it was launching a US$30 million (S$37.3 million) support programme for developing countries that signed up to the agreement to help them implement the reforms.

The push to expand trade was reiterated by the World Food Programme's executive director, Ertharin Cousin, who said businesses should also look to markets in the world's most impoverished nations.

"Being poor does not mean there is not an opportunity to create markets," said Cousin, who will discuss food security issues with business leaders during the summit.

"What we are hopeful of is that (the) private sector will recognise that there is an opportunity for them ... to support countries that to date have not had significant private sector investment outside of their local market (and) national companies," she said.

"Where you see companies like Unilever, who have seized the opportunities to go and into places like Rwanda, Kenya and Tanzania and invest in smallholder farms, it is making a difference in their bottom-line."

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