Russia's President Vladimir Putin, centre, takes questions during a news conference at the G-20 summit in St Petersburg, Russia, in September last year. Picture: REUTERS

In this article

IT IS an honour for Australia to host the Group of 20 (G-20) next year. It is also a great opportunity and a major responsibility. In this role, we look forward to continuing our close co-operation with South Africa, both as a co-chair of the Development Working Group and a key G-20 partner.

The G-20 has an important part to play in strengthening the global economy, revitalising financial institutions and improving financial regulation.

It played a decisive role in responding to the 2008-09 crisis and arguably prevented the global recession from becoming a full-blown depression. There is no doubt the G-20’s co-ordinated actions boosted confidence and supported economic recovery, including by increasing the International Monetary Fund’s financial resources.

Australia’s G-20 presidency comes at a time when global growth is too low and unemployment too high.

This is preventing people around the world, including in Africa, from reaching their full potential.

While there are many challenges that could benefit from G-20 leaders’ attention, Australia wants to maintain a tight focus on G-20 outcomes that will lift growth, create jobs and build the resilience of the global economy.

In September, G-20 leaders in St Petersburg committed to develop comprehensive growth strategies. The challenge for Australia is to turn that commitment into results.

To be effective, these growth strategies will need to include practical actions to improve productivity and competitiveness, to strengthen investment in infrastructure, to encourage trade, to make it easier to do business and to boost employment.

Over the past five years, G-20 members have made considerable headway in reforming the global financial system. But this work remains unfinished. Australia will make it a priority to build the resilience of banks, help prevent and manage the failure of globally important financial institutions, make derivatives markets safer and improve oversight of the shadow banking sector. We will also work with the G-20 membership to continue reforming international financial institutions, including by giving greater voice to emerging economies.

Many governments are facing increasing difficulty collecting tax where economic activity occurs. This "leaking bucket" makes it harder to manage budgets in a sustainable way while still delivering essential services.

I know that addressing this issue is a particular priority for many African governments. As G-20 president, Australia will lead stronger co-operation to combat tax-base erosion and profit shifting, including better global exchange of tax information. This will be an important step towards modernising the international tax system and strengthening public finances.

The G-20 will also continue to fight corruption. As Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan recently highlighted in a speech to the South African Institute of International Affairs, the amount that African countries lose each year through illicit financial flows is almost double the amount that they receive in development aid.

Corruption increases costs for businesses and deprives developing countries of up to $40bn a year. There are practical steps that all G-20 members can take to reduce the costs of corruption for growth and development.

Another area of relevance for Africa is the G-20 development agenda, which remains central to our goal of strong, sustainable and balanced growth.

Australia will draw on the St Petersburg Development Outlook to focus on driving growth in developing countries, including through initiatives on tax, infrastructure and access to banking and financial services. We are also committed to the G-20 target of reducing the global cost of remittances to 5% (from the present average of 8.93%).

The critically important work of defining a post-2015 development framework is also relevant to the G-20. While the United Nations is the proper forum for these discussions, there may be value in seeking G-20 leaders’ political support.

Similarly, Australia sees a role for the G-20 on food security, both to provide enough food now for the 870-million people in chronic hunger, and to meet longer-term demand. The G-20 is well placed to improve market conditions and agricultural productivity through economic growth strategies.

Across the whole G-20 agenda, Australia is mindful of African interests and eager to work closely with African countries to refine our thinking. We recognise that meaningful engagement with countries outside the G-20 is important to achieving results that are relevant and have a lasting effect. For that reason, Australia will undertake a broad and active outreach programme, including with the African Union and the New Partnership for Africa’s Development. We will also listen closely to the perspectives of Commonwealth members, many of which are African.

• Wilson is Australia’s high commissioner to SA.