OREANDA-NEWS. February 21, 2013. VTB Bank President and Chairman of the Management Board, Andrey Kostin, participated in the conference, dedicated to Russia’s presidency in the G20, organized by the Institute of International Finance (IIF) supported by the Russian Ministry of Finance, reported the press-centre of VTB Bank.  

Vital role of policy coordination in promoting sustainable growth became one of the main issues of the conference. Senior managers from banks and financial institutions of the United States, Switzerland and Indonesia participated in the discussion on that issue.

Among the key issues of the discussion agenda were: assessing progress on the G20 Los Cabos action plan for growth and jobs, fostering global economic policy coordination, promotion of open trade: expanding markets and resisting protectionism, the role of private-sector financial institutions in promoting global recovery, economic diversification.

The conference was also attended by Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov, Bank of Russia First Deputy Chairman Alexey Ulyukaev and Alexey Kudrin, Dean of the School of Liberal Arts and Sciences of Saint Petersburg State University. Among the other issues discussed during the conference were International Financial Stability through Effective and Efficient Regulatory Reform, Public Sector Debt Management and Moscow as an International Financial Center: Challenges and Opportunities. 

For reference:
Business 20 (B20) brings together major companies, banks and business associations to support an ongoing dialogue between the business community, the governments of the Group of Twenty (G20) and relevant international institutions.

Andrey Kostin, VTB Bank President and Chairman of the Management Board, heads the B20 Financial Stability Taskforce, which is working on proposals to help restore confidence in the financial system.

B20 meetings were initiated following the G20 Summit in June 2010 in Toronto, the first meeting where business leaders who accompanied their heads of state and government to the event joined the discussion on global issues. Andrey Kostin attended that meeting as a representative of Russian business. The B20 meetings that followed — in Seoul (South Korea) in November 2010, in Cannes (France) in 2011 and in Los Cabos (Mexico) in 2012 — proved an effective format for cooperation between business and government in G20.

As Russia took over the presidency of G20 and B20 on December 1, 2012, the country proposed a focus on a new basis for economic growth for the B20 meeting in St Petersburg in 2013, to follow up on the agenda of the previous B20 events. The agenda of the Russian presidency includes such issues as supporting trade; freedom of investment; restoring confidence in financial system; innovation-based development; a flexible employment and labour market; and an effective dialogue between the business and the government. A special target taskforce has been set up to focus on each of these issues, comprising leaders of business associations, B20 members and heads of interested companies.