The opening ceremony of the seventh G-20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors Meeting is to be held on Saturday morning in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, China's capital city.

It is the first time for China to assume the presidency of the G-20. The October 15-16 meeting in Xianghe, 52 kilometers from Beijing, will gather finance ministers and central bank governors from the world's richest countries and major emerging economies.

The meeting will be hosted by China's Finance Minister Jin Renqing, who, along with the Central Bank Governor Zhou Xiaochuan, is to lead China's delegation to attend the meeting.

Chinese President Hu Jintao will make a keynote speech at the opening ceremony. The organizer said all preparations were completed.

With the theme of "Global Cooperation: Promoting Balanced and Orderly World Economic Development", the finance elites are expected to discuss five major topics including the review and prospect of the global economy, the review of the Bretton Woods institutional system and its reform, the realization of the Millennium Goals set by the United Nations, the ageing and immigration problems, and the innovation of development concepts.

Li Yong, China's deputy finance minister, said that the meeting will be focused on global cooperation and hot issues of the world economy such as oil prices, global economic development imbalance and trade, and try to find solutions to restructural and systematic problems in terms of global economic governance as well as long- and medium-term development problems.

Paul D. Wolfowitz, President of the World Bank, Rodrigo de Rato, Managing Director of the IMF, and Jean-Claude Trichet, President of the European Central Bank will also attend the meeting.

Wolfowitz is on his first China tour. And the ministers will also avail of this opportunity to visit the emerging country. Before and after the meeting, Jin Renqing will hold bilateral talks with some foreign finance ministers, Mr. Wolfowitz, Mr. Jean-Claude Trichet and Mr. Rodrigo de Rato.

The meeting is so eye-catching that about 500 correspondents from 165 foreign and domestic media will cover the event.

Source: Xinhua