Employment goals set at G20

Treasurer Joe Hockey has discussed the importance of global growth and infrastructure in Cairns at the G20 Economic Summit, announcing in front of 2000 of the world’s financial heavy weights that he aims to lift global economic growth by an extra two per cent.

Mr Hockey acknowledged that it’s an ambitious goal to increase global economic growth and there will considerable difficulties but the ambition is required to make the changes required.

“We all know the difficulties caused by the global financial crisis and the prolonged recovery that has followed. So at our meeting in Sydney in February, I asked my G20 colleagues to agree to lift global economic growth by more than two per cent by 2018,” he said.

Mr Hockey said private investment, increased employment and workforce participation, and to address restricted open and free trade around the world are the key areas that needs to be addressed.

“We knew we were taking on a difficult task, with significant economic and political challenges. But we made this commitment because we all felt strongly that we needed to shake off the lingering effects of the global financial crisis,” Mr Hockey said.

Despite recent security concerns, preparations have been incident free so far and 800 extra police officers have been used with parts of the city also in lock down.