G20 summit: Great expectations, but will it deliver?

Source: Xinhua | 11-15-2008 11:05

by Hu Fang

WASHINGTON, Nov. 14 (Xinhua) -- When the heads of 20 industrialized and emerging economies meet here Saturday to discuss the ongoing financial crisis and reforms to the global financial architecture, a course will likely be set toward preventing such a disaster from ever recurring.

However, some analysts have cautioned people not to expect too much from the summit.

"The summit can be seen as a symbol that the international community has started to remodel the global financial system," Gao Bai, a professor in the Department of Sociology at Duke University in North Carolina, told Xinhua Friday.

However, it is just the beginning of a process to reshape the world financial system, Gao said. He expects a very complicated process during which all negotiators will definitely do all they can to ensure the maximization of their own benefits from the new system.

Further development in the financial markets and economic prospects will also affect the process, Gao added.