The President gave a keynote speech at a CEOs meeting that took part as part of the APEC Summit in Singapore on Friday (Nov. 13).

In his speech "Sustaining Asia''s Growth following the Crisis: How the G20 Process can Help" President Lee said that the existing imbalanced growth between countries and regions is insufficient, and called for a new model to realize sustainable and balanced growth of the global economy. 

Bringing up the framework for strong, sustainable and balanced growth adopted at the G20 Summit meeting held in Pittsburgh last September, Lee said that Korea, as the host of the G20 summit meeting scheduled for next year, would do its best to settle a framework that could serve as a basis for future cooperation between G20 member nations and the world. 

Reforming the global financial system should also be a major agenda item for the 2010 G20 Summit to prevent similar crises in the future, he said. Lee especially underlined the importance of speedy reform for smooth implementation of the framework for sustainable and balanced development of the global economy.

Some of the examples he gave for improving the existing global financial system include strengthening the financial safety net; securing capital for global financial institutions; extending currency swap between major economic powers and the emerging nations; and empowering a regional cooperative financial system such as the Chiang Mai Initiative.

Close coordination through G20 meetings is also very important, Lee said, reiterating how true it is especially when deciding the right timing for the exit policy.

Finally, President Lee said that although at this point the global economy is slowly showing signs of recovery, countries must watch out not to slacken their pace of reform and restructuring, saying that global markets would become even more competitive in the future and shaping up for that is an important matter.

President Lee is in Singapore to attend the 17th APEC Economic Leaders Meeting scheduled from Nov. 14 to 15.