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Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala (left) and Il Sakong (right)
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At the same time that red jersey fever was building across Korea ahead of the World Cup, Korean officials were building a strategy to score not just on the soccer field (which resulted in Korea's first ever win against an European team away from home), but also in the development arena, where concerns about poverty, climate change and food security trump worries about all else.
So, let's look back at the policy arena in Busan from June 4-5, where G-20 members called for concerted efforts to narrow the economic gap between emerging and developing countries. They seem to have won some initial ground, since growth-oriented development issues are being included in the Toronto meetings later this month, then at the Seoul Summit in November.
The G20, with Korea as Chair, takes its responsibility of bridging the divide between emerging market G20 members and the rest of the developing world very seriously (just like their fans take football very seriously). Their compelling development story – moving from a relatively low-income country to high-income nation within a generation -- makes them the right nation to get the job done.
The job is to put in place a framework for strong, sustainable and balanced growth made at the G20 in Pittsburgh in September last year.
