Preventing China and India's rapid growth from destabilising global energy markets will head the agenda when the world's most powerful economic officials meet in Melbourne this weekend.
Australia's second largest city will host the Group of Twenty (G20) summit, an annual gathering where the world's top finance ministers and central bankers discuss the challenges facing the global economy.
"This is the biggest financial conference Australia has ever hosted and ever will," the meeting's chairman, Australian Treasurer Peter Costello said this week.
"This organisation ... Brings together the developed world and the developing world (and) the 20 most important economies of the world."
Costello said November 18-19 meeting's most pressing issue was ensuring world energy and commodity supplies remained secure so demand from China and India could be met without producing price shocks.
"We know that there is incredible demand coming out of China and India, in particular," Costello said this week.
While the G20 lacks the profile of other economic grouping, such as the G7 industrialised nations or the International Monetary Fund (IMF), both supporters and sceptics rate it a major cog in the running of the world economy.
The G-20 includes the wealthy G7 nations—the United States, Germany, Japan, France, Italy, Britain and Canada—as well as the European Union (EU), Argentina, Australia, Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Korea and Turkey.
{{/usCountry}}The G-20 includes the wealthy G7 nations—the United States, Germany, Japan, France, Italy, Britain and Canada—as well as the European Union (EU), Argentina, Australia, Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Korea and Turkey.
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