Korea’s potential shown at G-20 Seoul summit: Lee

Korea’s potential shown at G-20 Seoul summit: Lee

South Korea needs to use last week's successful hosting of the G-20 economic summit as a stepping stone to becoming a leading country in the international community, President Lee Myung-bak has said. "We need to seize the chance," Lee said in his biweekly radio address, which was recorded Sunday during his flight back to Seoul after attending an Asia-Pacific Economic Forum meeting in Japan and aired on Monday morning, Yonhap News Agency reported. Seoul played host to the Nov. 11-12 summit of the world's 20 largest industrialized and emerging economies, the first G-20 session to be held in Asia and a non-G-8 member country. It was one of the largest international events held in South Korea, even compared with the 1988 Summer Olympic Games in Seoul. As this year's chair of the G-20, the premier forum for global economic cooperation, South Korea is said to have mediated a cease-fire in the global currency. In their Seoul meeting, the G-20 leaders produced detailed ways for the reform of the International Monetary Fund (IMF). South Korea is also behind the start of the G-20's full-fledged discussions on the development of the world's poorest nations. Lee said the leaders of Malawi and Ethiopia, both of which were invited to the meeting as special guests, expressed their sincere gratitude for Seoul's initiative. "The success of the Seoul G-20 is the success of our people and the success of the Republic of Korea," the president said, using the official name of South Korea. "I hope that South Korea will be reborn as a country that is upgraded by one notch in every field," Lee said. "If we unite power and move forward amid the rise of national fortunes like now, we will become literally a leading and top-notch country." Lee appreciated public and bipartisan support, especially noting that many citizens voluntarily left their cars at home to join the campaign to ease rush-hour traffic jams around the summit venue, COEX in southern Seoul. Massive street protests against the G-20 were largely peaceful as well. "I think we were able to hold the Seoul G-20 summit successfully owing to your active coo