Facts and figures about Chinese president´s G20 tour

Source: Xinhua | 04-02-2009 16:29

BEIJING, April 2 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Hu Jintao is in London for the Group of 20 (G20) summit, ahead of which he successively met with his U.S., British, Russian and French counterparts. The following are some facts and figures about his tour.

-- The G20 was initiated at a meeting of G7 finance ministers in Washington, D.C., in September 1999 when the Asian financial crisis had wakened the world's economic powers to the need of incorporating key industrial and emerging market countries into the global economic and financial policy making.

-- The G20 has a membership comprising 19 countries and a regional bloc, including the G7 nations -- the United States, Japan, Germany, France, Britain, Italy and Canada -- and Russia, China, Argentina, Australia, Brazil, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Korea, Turkey and the European Union.

-- The G20 economies account for more than 80 percent of the global gross national product, about 80 percent of world trade and about two thirds of the world population.

-- The objective of the London Summit is to bring the world's biggest economies together to help restore global economic growth through enhanced international coordination.