After the outbreak of the international financial crisis in 2008, under the joint action of various forces, the global economic governance system entered a critical period of accelerated change. This judgment is mainly based on the following reasons.
The profound adjustment of the international economic structure requires the global economic governance system to accelerate the reform. In recent years, emerging market countries and a large number of developing countries have developed rapidly, and their share in international trade and investment has risen sharply, accounting for more than half of foreign investment. Especially since the outbreak of the international financial crisis in 2008, developing countries have contributed about 80% of the global economic growth. However, the distribution of voting rights and discourse rights in global economic governance does not fully reflect this revolutionary change in the balance of international power. It is becoming the consensus of the international community to increase the voting rights and discourse rights of developing countries in the global economic governance system, promote the global economic governance system to be more democratic and effectively reflect the profound changes in the international economic structure. The adjustment of the World Bank’s share and the entry of RMB into the SDR currency basket have opened the prelude to the democratic reform of the global economic governance system.
The sharp expansion of the global income gap requires improving the inclusiveness of the global economic governance system. The international economic and trade rules dominated by developed countries are essentially beneficial to developed countries and not to developing countries. This unfair international economic and trade rule has further widened the international income gap. At present, the Gini coefficient of global income is as high as 0.7, and income inequality has become a huge challenge facing the world today. Developing countries strongly demand that international economic and trade rules be adjusted in a more just and reasonable direction.
Some developed countries have turned to trade protectionism, making the global economic governance system face directional choices. Developed countries are generally the beneficiaries of economic globalization, but they also face the challenge of hollowing out traditional industries. This was originally the result of countries participating in the global division of labor according to their comparative advantages. However, due to the defects in the internal income distribution adjustment mechanism of some developed countries, the widening of their domestic income gap has become a serious social problem. The international financial crisis has highlighted this problem, and the Internet has promoted the spread of ultra-nationalism and populism. Some groups in developed countries mistakenly blame their social problems on economic globalization and the "unfair competitive advantage" of other countries. In recent years, the United States has changed its free trade proposition for many years, demanding so-called "fair trade" and trying to lead the adjustment of international economic and trade rules to a more favorable direction for itself. There is also an increasingly strong anti-economic globalization sentiment in some European countries. Economic globalization has reached a crossroads, and the global economic governance system is facing directional choices.
The global economic governance system is fragmented and inefficient, and it is difficult to effectively deal with the new problems facing the international economy. After decades of evolution, regional trade arrangements in the global economic governance system are criss-crossed, which intensifies the fragmentation of the governance system and reduces the efficiency of the governance system and the coordination of economic policies of various countries. The international financial crisis in 2008 fully exposed the shortcomings of the global economic governance system in preventing financial risks and cultivating economic kinetic energy. At the same time, new situations and problems such as information technology progress, network security and climate change have also put forward new requirements for the global economic governance system.
The global economic governance system has entered a critical period of accelerating change, calling for new wisdom to promote reform. It has become a consensus to reform the global economic governance system, but there are different or even diametrically opposed views between developed and developing countries on the goal and how to reform. In the reform of global economic governance system, one-sided adherence to the concept and practice of giving priority to national interests will only bring more contradictions and conflicts between countries, and win-win cooperation is the way to solve the problem. All countries in the world, especially major powers, should proceed from the overall situation, seek common interests, promote consensus, promote the reform of global economic governance system responsibly, continuously improve the fairness, inclusiveness and sustainability of global economic governance system, continuously improve the efficiency and level of global economic governance, and promote the healthy development of economic globalization. (Long Guoqiang, Deputy Director of the State Council Development Research Center)