At the invitation of President Nicolas Sarkozy of France, the rotating presidency of the Group of Twenty (G20), President Hu Jintao attended the Sixth G20 Summit held in Cannes, France from Nov. 3 to 4, 2011. Ma Zhaoxu, spokesman of the Chinese delegation, made a briefing on President Hu's attendance of the summit.

The Sixth G20 Summit was closed in the afternoon, Nov. 4 local time in Cannes, France. The summit was held in the context that the European debt crisis caused great turbulence in international financial markets, economic growth of major economies was slowing down, and the world economic recovery was facing new and complex factors. It attracted close attention of the international community. In response to such a complex situation, the parties pledged at the summit to continue to strengthen macroeconomic policy coordination, stabilize financial markets, promote economic growth, strengthen global economic governance, and jointly safeguard the hard-won momentum of world economic recovery. After the summit, three outcome documents were issued, including the leaders' communique, declaration of the Cannes summit and plan of action. With the joint efforts of all parties, the summit in general achieved positive and balanced results.

First, the summit focused discussions on the European sovereign debt problems. The parties noted that the EU recently introduced some new measures and ideas to deal with sovereign debt issues. China expects these measures will help Europe stabilize the financial markets, overcome the current difficulties and promote its economic recovery and development. Many countries have put forward initiatives and propositions to help Europe get out of the difficult situation. Most countries believed that European debt problems can be solved with Europe's own efforts. They hoped that European nations could quickly refine and implement these measures. All parties welcomed the euro area to mobilize its financial capacity to restore market confidence and stabilize financial market so as to ensure the normal operation of monetary and financial markets. The European member countries in the Group of 20 indicated that they would actively implement related initiatives to prevent proliferation and spread of the crisis. Some countries suggested helping Europe and other regions address financial challenges through the International Monetary Fund and other channels. The summit finally decided to ensure that the IMF has sufficient resources to help member countries overcome their difficulties and specific measures are to be worked out by finance ministers of G20.

Second, the summit stressed that in the context that the current global economy has entered a difficult period, the Group of 20 needs to further strengthen macroeconomic policy coordination, jointly support economic recovery and restore market confidence. To this end, the summit adopted the "Cannes Action Plan", which identifies each country's policies and actions to promote economic growth, including short-term measures aimed at ensuring growth and promoting stability, as well as mid- and long-term plans for carrying out structural reform, improving global production output, expanding employment, and consolidating the basis of economic growth. This fully shows the determination of the Group of Twenty to jointly promote the strong, sustainable and balanced growth of world economy. While discussing the role of the Group of Twenty, the parties agreed that the basic principles of G20 is that major economies carry out cooperation as equals, based on which the G20 will thus continue to strengthen the mechanism building and give full play to the mechanism as a main platform for international economic cooperation.

Third, the summit discussed the reform of international monetary and financial system, volatility of commodity price, international trade and development, and other issues and reached important consensus. The summit called on the international community to establish a more stable and more risk-resistant international monetary system and expand the currency basket of Special Drawing Rights of IMF to fully reflect the changes in the world economy. The summit decided to continue to strengthen international financial regulation, strengthen the role of the Financial Stability Council, and enhance the ability of the financial system to respond to the crisis. The summit called for increased investment in food production, improved international energy market, and strengthened regulation on commodity derivatives markets. The summit pledged to oppose trade protectionism, confirmed the progress of the Doha Round negotiations, and would continue to push the negotiations under the Doha mandate. The summit particularly pointed out that addressing development issues is a key working area to promote global economic recovery and drive the future economic growth. The Group of Twenty will continue to take development as an important topic for the future summit.

The parties also exchanged views on a wide range of topics such as expanding employment, anti-corruption, climate change, protecting marine environment.

Fourth, during the summit, emerging market countries actively participated in discussions and consultations, and played an important and constructive role in the outcome of the summit. The parties recognized that as the international financial market is experiencing upheaval, emerging market countries have maintained the momentum of economic growth, injecting vitality to economic stability and recovery of the world. Based on the summit discussions, major developed countries recognized the complex international economic situation and their own serious economic difficulties and paid more attention to the role of emerging market countries. A group of developing countries represented by the emerging market countries in the Group of 20, actively participated in global economic governance and became constructive participants in maintaining international financial stability and promoting world economic growth. This is the progress of the times, which clearly indicates the profound adjustment and historical change of the international economic order.