Korean President Lee Myung-bak (left) and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper shake hands at a joint press conference in Pittsburgh, Sep. 25 (local time).

Korea will host a Group of 20 summit in November next year according to a decision reached at the third G20 meeting held in Pittsburgh, President Lee Myung-bak said at a joint press conference on Sep. 25 (local time).

The country also takes the chairmanship of the G20 summit in 2010.

"The decision to have Korea host the November 2010 meeting was reached by the G20 leaders unanimously, thanks to Korean people''s keen desire for it," Lee said at the conference, which was jointly held with Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

Canada will host the fourth meeting in June 2010, and Korea will host the fifth. The previous three rounds were held in Washington, D.C. (Nov. 2008), London (Apr. 2009), and Pittsburgh, in that order.

The June G20 summit in Canada, which will be held along with a G8 summit, will be co-hosted by Korea and Canada, at the Canadian Prime Minister''s request, Lee said.

"The G20 meeting has become a premier forum for world leaders to join their efforts for global economic development," President Lee said.

Meanwhile, Sakong Il, a special adviser to the President, who has led the efforts for Korea to host a G20 meeting, said that Seoul''s hosting of the event was a historic achievement.

By hosting the meeting of the world''s most powerful economies, Korea will start playing a crucial role in the international economic spheres, Sakong said.

Despite Seoul''s support for Tokyo''s bid to host the second G20 meeting early this year, London was selected as the venue for the April summit. But this time, Korea won support not only from Japan but also from the United States, China and Australia. President Lee Myung-bak and Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd wrote in a joint contribution to the Financial Times in early September that the Group of 20 could lead the way to balanced growth of the world economy, overcoming new challenges.

Leaders participating in G20 summit pose for a photo on Sep. 25 (local time). (Photo: Yonhap News)

It is widely recognized that Korea has experienced the fastest recovery since late last year and has taken a leading role in setting the economic recovery agenda, including anti-trade protectionism.

President Lee, who attended the G20 economic meeting after the joint press conference, warned against hasty exit strategies, which could invite a "double-dip recession."

 
Those exit plans should come after thorough internal verification and analyses, Lee said, and the plans should be coordinated, with the International Monetary Fund at the center, Lee said.

Meanwhile, the leaders of the G20 nations, which account for 85 percent of the world''s gross domestic product, adopted a joint statement calling for the G20 meeting to be the central forum to lead global economic cooperation.

The leaders also agreed in their statement that the process of economic recovery remained incomplete. "In many countries, unemployment remains unacceptably high. The conditions for a recovery of private demand are not yet fully in place. We cannot rest until the global economy is restored to full health," said the statement.

As to the controversial IMF quota redistribution, the statement said, "We are committed to a shift in International Monetary Fund quota share to dynamic emerging markets and developing countries of at least 5% from over-represented countries to under-represented countries using the current quota formula as the basis to work from."

The leaders also called for the World Bank to generate an increase of at least 3 percent of voting rights to developing and transition countries, to benefit of under-represented countries.

President Lee, who arrived in New York on Sep. 20 (Seoul time) to attend the UN Conference on Climate Change and the 64th UN General Assembly meeting, wrapped up his week-long visit to the United States on Saturday (Sep. 26) after several bilateral meetings with key leaders and having won the bid to host the 5th Group of Twenty meeting in 2010.