G20 Summit in St. Petersburg Day 2: agenda

Russian President Vladimir Putin will meet with business and labor union representatives of Group of Twenty. The meeting will be followed by the second working session of the G20 leaders and governments and the heads of invited countries and international organizations. Main topics of the session are investments, stimulating economic growth and creating jobs.

Later in the day, participants in the Summit will have a working luncheon to discuss economic growth and trade matters.

The President of Russia is to sum up the results of the Summit at a press conference.

On the final day of the summit, Russian President will meet with the Prime Minister of Spain, Mariano Rajoy.

It is noteworthy that this will be the Russian President's first meeting with the Head of the present Spanish government which was formed in December 2011.

On the same day there will be a bilateral meeting between Putin and President Park Geun-hye of the Republic of Korea. The two Heads of State are expected to consider a number of matters, including aspects of the Russian leader's forthcoming visit to Korea in November 2013. During their conversation the two Presidents will "compare notes" on the situation on the Korean Peninsula and discuss bilateral interaction within the framework of international organizations.

A Declaration of Leaders and a St Petersburg Plan, prepared by the "financial G20" meeting will be the final documents of the Summit. Supplements to the Declaration on all tracks of the G20 work have been also drawn up.

An Action Plan to ensure sustainable growth and employment will include, in particular, a diagram of work to finance long-term investments, a report on the course of implementation of the financial regulation reform, a resume and an action plan on taxation-related matters. According to Ksenia Yudayeva, the Russian Federation's sherpa at the G20 and Head of the Expert Directorate of the Presidential Administration, "The documents are ready 99.9 percent".

Russian President Vladimir Putin met with UK Prime Minister David Cameron here late at night at the close of the working supper with the leaders of G20 countries and a music-and-lighting performance. During the meeting, the Syrian problem was also touched upon among other subjects of discussion, RF presidential press secretary Dmitry Peskov said.

"The sides once again exchanged views on the situation around Syria," Peskov said.

The press secretary pointed out that during their conversation Putin and Cameron had made a positive assessment of the dynamism of the development of bilateral relations. "The Presidrnt and the Prime Minister reaffirmed an intention to continue to work on developing cooperation on the broadest spectrum of fields," Peskov said.

Conditions need to be created to improve the global economic situation, President Vladimir Putin said.

"The main thing is to ensure the basic conditions for global economic recovery, recovery through qualitative development," Putin said on Thursday at the first working session of the G20 leaders and governments and the heads of invited countries and international organizations.

"The issues of stimulating economic growth and creating jobs have been central during Russia's presidency of the G20," Putin said.

Putin urged the summit participants to approve "the St. Petersburg plan of action for ensuring growth and creating jobs."

"I believe that we have every reason to view this document as a sensible balance of interests," Putin said.

The plan will strengthen financial market confidence "in our plans, our intentions, and, with that, direct the gaze of investors to the real sector of the economy," he said.

The budget strategies and commitments of the countries to carry out structural reforms lie at the foundation of the plan, he said.

"Over the course of intense discussions, an overall understanding of the need to find an optimal balance between carrying out fiscal consolidation and supporting growth took shape. This was difficult work. We have our experts to thank for its results," Putin said.

Very recently, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) lowered its forecast for global economic growth in 2013 to 3.1%, whereas a year ago estimates hovered around 4%, the Russian president said.

The U.S. economy is growing, "which everyone is certainly pleased about, although unfortunately the rates aren't as high as we would like them to be," Putin said.

For the first time in many years, the Japanese economy is growing. "Unfortunately, there aren't any guarantees as to the sustainability of this trend yet," the president said.

In the euro zone, "merely the first signals of an end to the recession have appeared; 0.2% growth was recorded in the second quarter," Putin said.

"For the year as a whole, they're not expecting such good results. In addition to that, new risks have arisen literally in the last few months," he said.

Monitoring needs to be carried out constantly, the potential effects need to be forecast, and additional preventive measures need to be taken on both a national and global level in a timely fashion, Putin said.

Voice of Russia