G-7 Summit Starts in Germany

Ellmau, Germany, June 7 (Jiji Press)--The top leaders of the group of seven major economies kicked off their two-day meeting in the southern German city of Ellmau Sunday afternoon. The first-day summit agenda chiefly covers challenges and risks for the global economy's sustainable growth, ways to cope with growing infrastructure demand in Asia and issues related to huge regional free trade blocks such as the Trans-Pacific Partnership zone now under negotiation. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe plans to explain how he has implemented his economic policy dabbed "Abenomics" and pledge to provide 110-billion-dollar aid for infrastructure development in Asia over the next five years. He is also expected to present plans to pursue "high-quality" infrastructure investment in the region that will not only offer money but promote technology transfer and human resources development in cooperation with the Asian Development Bank, led by Japan and the United States, people familiar with the matter said. By emphasizing the "quality" side of such investment, Abe hopes to put pressure on supporters of the China-proposed Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, they noted. While Japan and the United States have been reluctant to join the AIIB, their European G-7 colleagues of Britain, France, Germany and Italy have decided to be the new international lending institution's founding members. It is interesting to see what kind of discussions the G-7 leaders will have on the AIIB at the summit, pundits said. On ways to revitalize the global economy, the leaders are expected to jointly call for accelerating free trade talks, such as the 12-nation TPP negotiations and bilateral economic partnership talks between Japan and the European Union and between the EU and the United States, informed sources said. END