President Cyril Ramaphosa is expected to address two working sessions at the G20 Leaders’ Summit to be held in Indonesia this week.

The President will also hold bilateral engagements with China and other trade partners.

According to Presidential spokesperson, Vincent Magwenya, the first session to be addressed by President Ramaphosa will be on food and energy security.

“In his input, President Ramaphosa will call for substantial financial support for countries with developing economies that are most affected by food shortages and the effects of climate change. In this regard, South Africa will support that addressing food insecurity challenges must be a top G20 priority,” Magwenya said.

He said on issues of energy, the country’s objectives at the G20 will be to:

• To advance practical cooperation in terms of the G20 Voluntary Collaboration on Energy Access with a continuous focus on Sub-Saharan Africa;
• Ensure that the discussion on clean energy takes into account all forms of clean energy such as clean coal technology and nuclear to ensure affordable, reliable and sustainable energy; this is important in the context of the existing South African energy mix policy;
• To guard against onerous commitments placed on developing countries regarding the phasing out of fossil fuels, which may negatively affect the poor.

Magwenya said the second session will focus on health where the President will “emphasise the urgent need to strengthen the Global Health Architecture that will respond quickly and effectively to the next pandemic”.

“The President will call for a permanent global coordination and governance mechanism that will enable collaboration, priority setting, pooling of resources, technology transfer and the research and development of medical countermeasures,” he said.

Source: South African Government News Agency