G20 will need to make decisions on investment, financial sector regulation – Putin

File Photo of Russia-Hosted G20 Banners Outdoors Before Yellow and White Facade of Historic-Looking Building

(Interfax – August 28, 2013) Russian President Vladimir Putin said important decisions are expected to be made in the sphere of investment stimulation at the G20 summit scheduled to take place in St. Petersburg.

“A roadmap for the financing of long-term investment has been created. It will be implemented during the years of Australia’s chairmanship [of the G20]. The principles for institutional investors have been approved,” Putin said in his address on the upcoming G20 summit, which was posted on the Kremlin website.

Putin also said the G20 is hoping for “joint decisions in the sphere of capital market development and the regulation of the financial sector and its infrastructure, both on a global and national scale, the strengthening of multilateral trade, increasing the stability of energy markets, and the prevention of corruption.”

In the past nine months, considerable progress was achieved in key areas, such as the realization of an agreement ensuring confident and balanced growth, the reform of financial architecture, assistance to international development, expansion of employment, and the strengthening of multilateral trade, the address says.

“We have done work on tax regulation reform and have taken coordinated steps to fight tax evasion. The joint plan of actions in this sphere developed by the G20 with support from the OECD can well be called the largest step towards the improvement and coordination of the tax policies of our countries in the past 100 years,” Putin said.

The finance and labor ministers of the G20 countries met for the first time when Russia chaired the organization, he said. The meeting helped draw connections between macroeconomic and financial policy issues and the task of creating high-quality jobs and social security. Measures to promote the employment of young people and vulnerable categories of the population were also discussed.

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