The first round of G20 meetings kicks off today and SA will be holding its collective breath that the logistics go smoothly, and that the many high-level visitors who come to our shores during the year of meetings have a good experience of SA.
Hosting the G20 is a huge opportunity for SA to market itself as a tourism and investment destination, as well as to position itself on the world stage as the genuinely nonaligned African leader that it claims to be. Messing up the logistics could not only risk keeping some of the G20 delegates away, it would risk demarketing SA as a tourism destination and keeping other potential visitors away.
Equally, doing it well can be a boon for SA, not only marketing it to outsiders but also providing a catalyst for it to boost its infrastructure and its economy. The 2010 Fifa World Cup was estimated to have added 0.4 percentage points to SA’s GDP, or about R38bn.
Hosting the G20 for the year is a much longer and more extensive production than hosting a sporting world cup. It’s also much larger than hosting the Brics. Its complexities and importance should not be underestimated. The G20 should be the all-consuming focus of the department of international relations & co-operation and it requires much attention too from other government departments — not least of which is the Treasury, which with the Reserve Bank hosts the finance track of the G20.
All hands on deck
Ahead of Monday’s opening meetings, there clearly were some issues with registration and accreditation for some of the G20 countries. We trust the government has addressed those as a matter of urgency and has learnt rapidly from any initial missteps. It needs to be all hands on deck with a problem-solving, can-do mentality. Ideally, the logistics should be seamless so that SA and all the other G20 delegations can focus on the content and outcomes of the meetings.
There is already a long list of items on the G20’s agenda, involving many and varied commitments by the 19 countries — plus the EU and now AU.
Though it began after the 1990s emerging markets crises as a forum for central bank governors and finance ministers (which survives as the finance track), the G20 in its present form dates back to the 2008 global financial crisis. Then its focus was on rescuing the global financial system and stabilising the global economy.
Now it has become an amorphous mass of issues, from global hunger and inequality to global governance to financial stability and cross-border payments to artificial intelligence. The year’s many ministerial meetings feed into the leaders’ summit in November that, if the year is a success, will result in a communiqué on which all agree. SA will have to preside over all that and ensure it can provide clear agendas for the 130 planned meetings and a path towards useful outcomes.
Each G20 host country adds to and takes forward the issues already on the G20 table. But each country has some opportunity to make a difference. In SA’s case, it is the last of four emerging market countries to play host, and it is the first and only African country to do so. It needs to be clear on what it wants to achieve.
While SA’s theme — Solidarity, Equality and Sustainability — sounds like a platitude, with many of the opening remarks that have been made, President Cyril Ramaphosa’s remarks at the launch listed priority actions that speak to SA’s particular place as this year’s chair and host. These include strengthening disaster resilience, ensuring debt sustainability for low-income countries, mobilising finance for a just energy transition and harnessing critical minerals for inclusive growth and development.
It remains to be seen how much consensus SA can broker on the nitty-gritty of these actions and whether they will yield tangible results. Some of the 13 engagement groups that feed into the G20, most notably the Business 20, are determined to use the opportunity to focus on getting consensus on practical actions that can make a difference.
Business is also playing an important role in SA’s G20 effort by providing resources, including venues. The Investec head office will host this week’s sherpa and finance track deputies meetings, while Nedbank’s headquarters next door is the venue for delegates to collect their accreditation badges.
It is an opportunity to showcase the strength and patriotism of SA’s private sector. The government must give credit where it is due and step up to match the standards of efficiency set by the private hosts.
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