The first summit of finance ministers from 20 countries including the United States, Britain, France, Germany, Japan, the Republic of Korea (ROK), India and Russia will be held in Beijing in October this year.

Alan Greenspan, board chairman of US Federal Reserve, who is known as the "God of Wealth", is expected to make his appearance in China for the first time.

This Wednesday, Zhu Guangyao, director of the International Department of the Chinese Ministry of Finance, disclosed at the briefing on the release of the British "Economists" Group (World 2005) Yearbook (Chinese Edition) that the conference of finance ministers and governors of central banks from (G20), or group of 20 nations, will be held in Beijing between October 15-16, China has officially invited British Finance Secretary Brown and US Federal Reserve Board Chairman Greenspan to attend the meeting.

For Greenspan, this will be his first China visit since his assumption of the past as board chairman of the US Federal Reserve. Prior to this, he could only affect the "nerve" of the Chinese economy through fluctuations of interest rates on the other shore of the Atlantic Ocean. In addition, according to the usual practice of G20, aside from heads of financial and banking departments of member states, responsible members of World Bank, International Monetary Fund (IMF), European central banks and other international financial institutions will also be present at the meeting.

The summit of finance ministers from G20 is also a meeting to be held by China for the first time. Compared with the group of seven large industrial countries (G7), the G20 has a more wide-ranging representative, representing 90 percent of global total product of society, three quarters of the world trade volume and two-thirds of the world population.

Zhu also reveals that apart from the G20 Summit, an Asian-European finance minister conference will also be held by China in Tianjin from June 15-16, which will be attended by related officials from 25 EU member states and 13 Asian countries. In addition, the International clearing bank will hold a special conference of central bank governors from the Asia-Pacific region in Hong Kong from February 6-7.

The year 2005 seems like China's "international financial conference year", showing China's increasingly prominent status in the global financial system. Even the G7 Conference, which has long been known as "talking behind closed doors" among Western countries, has opened its doors wide to China. In October last year, China attended the G7 Summit in the capacity as observer for the first time.

In early February, Chinese Finance Minister Jin Renqing and Central Bank Governor Zhou Xiaochuan will again attend the Group's 2005 summit to be held in London. China's monetary policy, especially the exchange rate issue will again focus the attention of world opinion.

By People's Daily Online