The year-long G20 process in 2025 was one where, despite, or precisely due to, the political and economic turbulences that the world faced, participation and involvement in the G20 increased significantly. 2026 marks a transition year in which, after four years of rotating presidencies hosted by Indonesia, India, Brazil and South Africa — all of them belonging to the so-called Brics bloc — the US now holds the G20 presidency.
For many economic actors, 2025 signified a G20 presidency where local priorities and concerns found a place on the global stage, as stakeholders proposed responses to fundamental questions such as how to feed the world, how to create and sustain jobs in a digital era, and how to source and trade critical minerals amid heightened global trade and investment hurdles.
One myth the process shattered in 2025 is the notion that global conversations are disconnected from local realities. The participation of over 1,400 businesses from G20 economies showed that the more accurate question at hand is not one of legitimacy but one of optimisation. It is about maximising the power of dialogue at global and local levels and building bridges between the public and private sector in the service of common goals. Corporate and government leaders exchanged ways to boost job creation, to improve access to critical minerals and to enhance financial inclusion through digital technologies, among others.
This is not about symbolic dialogue or a five-minute intervention in a panel; it is instead about systemic exchange to tackle complex and constantly evolving challenges, including food security or skills development in an era in which AI is disrupting the workforce. The G20 works less like a conference and more like an operating system — one where updates accumulate gradually until they meaningfully shift the user experience.
We left our participation in the G20 Business 20 summit with actionable insights, thinking over the many questions that business leaders asked us in corridor conversations. One of them was whether all the groundwork done in 2025 will be set aside by the next presidency.
Other questions surfaced concerning the structure and priority that the US will give to the topics that drove the programme last year. These questions are valid, but at this point it is too early to tell.
Regardless of where 2026 takes us, business leaders should keep an eye on how G20 governments interact bilaterally to exchange best practices that can be imported from one country to another while working on global commitments.
However, this should not distract from a wider point: the G20 is a process in which every member government — not only the host — has a say and a responsibility towards impact. We have seen a strong signal for continuity, as South Africa’s G20 declaration already communicated that the UK will host the presidency in 2027, South Korea in 2028 and Saudi Arabia will likely do so in 2029. This delineation shows the opportunity and the challenge of a rotating process. Many ideas risk losing momentum, but their longevity depends on the collective power of all G20 economies to continue driving a strong programme.
The host certainly has prerogatives for any given year, but G20 members lean heavily on other international organisations whenever they agree on commitments, initiatives and further research projects. For example, the OECD, IMF, ILO, WHO and the Financial Stability Board often serve as “institutional memory”, carrying forward workstreams regardless of political rotation, including in the latest G20 leaders’ declaration in which the OECD and ILO are tasked with monitoring progress on reducing the gender labour participation gap.
Regardless of where 2026 takes us, business leaders should keep an eye on how G20 governments interact bilaterally to exchange best practices that can be imported from one country to another while working on global commitments. These bilateral exchanges often seed the compromises later formalised at G20 level, including the project the G20 mandated to the OECD in 2013 on international taxation, which effectively designed 15 measures at global level to tackle tax avoidance and impact multinational corporations worldwide.
Expectations and pressures
Corporate leaders should also note that many of today’s global expectations and pressures that define a company’s ability to advance its corporate strategy and drive performance have risen to the top of political priorities through exchanges across the G20, the G7 and international financial institutions, as well as the platforms that support them. Political alignment doesn’t happen at the summit, it happens in the systems and mechanisms behind it.
The G20 has universal applicability to all industry sectors and the power to address issues that shape business and society on a daily basis. One clear example is the elevation of critical minerals at the G20 level and the non-binding recommendations that leaders agreed on. This move signals an emerging consensus that supply resilience, transparency and environmental performance of mineral chains will shape competitiveness in the energy, automotive and tech sectors.
Given how pivotal critical minerals are for the development of essential products, we expect this topic to continue to feature in the coming years — especially as the UK, the 2027 host, has also placed this topic at the top of its agenda.
We also observed how public and private sectors galvanised momentum for early childhood education. Reports show the massive return on investment that such interventions generate for GDP and wellbeing. Countries increasingly see early childhood investment the way they once saw infrastructure — foundational, productivity-enhancing and politically durable.
Resurgence of digital public infrastructure
The resurgence of digital public infrastructure (DPI) as a way to increase financial inclusion and connect citizens with day-to-day processes to boost economic productivity and digital literacy is also a topic that will continue to feature prominently across international agendas. DPI is becoming a cross-cutting enabler, much like broadband was a decade ago.
The G20 has now concluded its first 20-year cycle, so we should not forget it is still a relatively young process. As the US takes the helm, global businesses have realised that, contrary to the perception of these processes as impermeable or difficult to decipher, meaningful engagement routes exist.
Businesses are not passive observers but active contributors to the agenda. In an era where business-to-government dialogue is essential for broader goals, the G20 is one of the few mechanisms offering a steady engagement channel that allows for entrepreneurial inclusion, fresh perspectives and closer collaboration between stakeholders that enable innovation, empowerment and prosperity.
Several leaders we met over the course of the summit asked what success would look like this year for those who engaged in 2025. Our advice is straightforward: perseverance pays off, so continued engagement is essential. One cycle cannot solve all issues; this is a long-term game where interfacing across the ecosystem of international actors is not a luxury but a necessity. The G20 is a relay race, not a sprint, and progress depends on passing the baton, not holding it.
• Ruiz is senior MD and Parker MD of FTI Consulting. FTI Consulting was an associate knowledge partner to the 2025 B20 secretariat
