By Gerardo Rodríguez Regordosa Mexico's Deputy Secretary of Finance and Public Credit 

On December 1, 2011, Mexico took over the G20 Presidency and has the honor of guiding the Group’s work until November 2012. By assuming the year-long Presidency of the G20, Mexico, the first Latin American country and the second emerging country to do so, confirms its role as a responsible and influential actor, both regionally and globally. Mexico has a stable economy and is committed to solving the most pressing challenges on the global economic agenda during this time of financial instability.

More than 100 days have passed we assumed the G20 Chair, and the actions taken, as well as the consensus reached so far, allow us to evaluate our performance as promissory and successful, thanks to the hard work of hundreds of experts on economic and finance.

In December 2011, Mexico officially launched its Presidency of the G20, hosting a seminar: The Current Challenges for Global Growth, to set out its working agenda and priorities. Since then, G20 members and international organizations –such as the IMF, the World Bank and the OECD– have actively participated in different seminars, work groups and high-level meetings in order to strengthen the global economy and promote long-term economic growth, and thus improve living standards.

These efforts culminated in the first G20 Finance Ministers’ and Central Bank Governors’ meeting, which took place in February in Mexico City. The purpose of this meeting was to follow up on agreements reached during previous meetings and define the actions that needed to be implemented to restore strong, balanced and sustained economic growth. The agreements reached are significant both from an international, as well as a national, perspective. In April, the finance ministers will meet again to advance the G20 agenda in preparation for the Leaders’ Summit in June. The following agreements and achievements have been reached:

First, the relevance of the G20 as the international body to discuss global economic problems has been confirmed. G20 countries have recognized that important efforts have been undertaken to address these problems, but we have agreed to double our efforts to implement structural reforms that promote growth and job creation.

Second, Mexico has included in its agenda the need to provide additional resources to the global financial system and strengthen international financial organizations, in particular the IMF. There have been productive discussions on this matter, the Europeans have agreed to review how to strengthen their own resources and the rest of the member countries will also analyze whether to commit additional resources to improve global liquidity.

Third, we have made strong commitments to strengthen international financial regulation. Mexico will comply with these agreements in a timely fashion; the capitalization level of Mexican banks is twice the regulatory minimum and 1.2 percent above the OECD members’ average. Additionally, we included an agenda topic which is of great importance both in Mexico and in the rest of the emerging economies: financial inclusion.

Fourth, commodity price increases–such as energy or agricultural products – and the volatility of the commodity market puts food security at risk, especially for the poorest. As part of the G20, Mexico has proposed to analyze policies to mitigate the adverse effects of such volatility and strengthen food security. Additionally, disaster risk management has been added to the G20 agenda.

Fifth, Mexico is a global leader in the fight against climate change and the promotion of sustainable development; therefore, Mexico has decided to make these issues, as well as green growth, one of the priorities of the G20 during 2012.

The Leaders’ Summit in Los Cabos, which will take place on June 18 and 19, is the most important event of Mexico’s G20 Presidency. The work undertaken thus far demonstrates that Mexico is prepared to assume this leadership.