New York - President Jacob Zuma today concluded his visit to the United States, where he was attending the 64th session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) and the G20 Summit meeting.
President Zuma arrived in Pittsburgh on Thursday evening, where he attended a working dinner hosted by US President Barack Obama on the reform of the international system. This included discussions on the future role of the G20 in dealing with global economic and financial issues.
During the Pittsburgh visit, Zuma participated in a review of progress made since the G20 meeting in London earlier this year that sought to develop a response to the economic crisis and lay a foundation for a sustainable economic recovery.
"South Africa has noted that since the London Summit, G20 countries have moved quickly to make greater resources available to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and multilateral development banks for lending.
"Attention now needs to turn to the urgent implementation of all the commitments in meeting the needs of low income countries. These include commitments made at the G8 Gleneagles Summit in 2005 to double aid to Africa by 2010," The Presidency said in a statement.
It said while South Africa welcomes proposals for introducing a robust and comprehensive framework for global regulation and oversight, the country is calling for capacity support to low-income countries to enable them to comply with new regulations.
The meeting was also expected to discuss the reform of financial regulatory mechanisms to ensure that such a financial crisis is prevented in the future.
On Wednesday, Zuma delivered his first address to the UNGA as the President of South Africa where he called on the UN and the world's rich countries to find solutions to the global economic crisis.
"The United Nations must play a significant role in finding solutions to the global economic crisis. The crisis should not be an excuse to delay further action on the delivery of the Millennium Development Goals," he added, referring to the set of socio-economic targets which world leaders have agreed to try to achieve by 2015.
