A Study Of G20Member Saudi Arabia’s Engagement In Global Economic Governance

After the breakout of global financial crisis, G20came to the fore and becamethe mainstay of global economic governance. By rapidly pushing forward the buildingof institutionalization and continuously holding leader meetings, G20has made muchprogress and acquired great influence. Thus G20has been a main platform ofinternational economic cooperation and increasingly played a central part in globaleconomic governance. Saudi Arabia is the only Arabian member of G20, so it is oftheoretical importance and practical significance to examine its engagement in globaleconomic governance.To construct a theoretical framework to analyze global economic governancelays the foundation of this study. Global economic governance refers to thecoordinated actions or measures taken by sovereign states and their extensions tosolve global economic issues and stabilize international economic order by means ofinternational regime and norms. The sovereign states are the main actors of globaleconomic governance which reflects the power structure and its change ininternational economic field. The main aim of global economic governance is to dealwith global economic problems by realizing the stabilization and balance of globaltrade, finance, capital, regional economy and international economic institutions. Thecontents and fields of global economic governance studies can be divided into fiveparts, which are named global trade governance, global financial governance, globalinvestment governance, regional economic governance as well as global economicgovernance regime.Saudi Arabia has many advantages and talents, which enables it to become amember of G20and has a special position to play an important role. The reasons whySaudi Arabia has a say in G20is basically attributed to its unique advantages such asits multi-facet representation, rich oil resource, huge financial assets as well asmoderate pro-western foreign policy. Saudi Arabia has a strong will to activelyengage in global economic governance and play a part as a big nation. And itsengagement includes global oil trade, oil finance, petro-dollars, Islamic finance,Sovereign Wealth Fund, Gulf economic cooperation and so on. Under the frameworkof G20, Saudi Arabia’s global position is highlighted, which strengths therepresentation, legality and effectiveness of G20as a global economic governanceregime, lifts G20’s structural power. On the other hand, G20has become the mainplatform for Saudi Arabia to engage in global economic governance. After careful analysis, some conclusions can be drawn upon. First, Saudi Arabiaplays a key and important position in global oil trade and its governance. It enjoys acentral place in global oil trade by its inherent advantages, acting as a floating anddynamic country in global oil supply and its steady, moderate and cooperative oilpolicy helps it win the trust and support around the world, in addition that themembership of OPEC enables Saudi Arabia to play more prominent role in global oiltrade governance. Second, Saudi Arabia enjoys a key foundation in oil finance andIslamic financial fields. By huge amount of petrodollars, Saudi Arabia’s financialpower and influence is ever increasing and has become an important force ininternational financial market, playing a basic role in oil finance and being a decisivepower in development of Islamic finance. Third, petrodollar is the important powerfoundation for Saudi Arabia to engage in global investment and economic governance.Saudi Arabia has become an important force to be reckoned with in internationalcapital and investment market by its huge petrodollar. Saudi Arabia’s investment andthe Gulf and global petrodollar investment deeply influence the global investment andits structure. Finally, Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) is the central platform forSaudi Arabia to join regional economic governance. Saudi Arabia has always aleading position in GCC, which is also the important contents and basis to engage inglobal economic governance. Generally, Saudi Arabia’s foreign economic influenceand global economic governance role is enlarged with the support of GCC.The position and role of Saudi Arabia in global economic governance will beimproved, but it’s unrealistic to expect too much from Saudi Arabia. Seen form thenational foundation to play a role in global economic governance, Saudi Arabia has astrong economic capacity and integrated influence as well as high ability to align withother countries to increase its influence. By increasing its, Saudi Arabia’s say andposition in global economic governance regime will increase steadily and become oneof great powers as well as important pushing force in global economic governancereform by G20. However, due to its economic development, national strength,specialty of foreign relations, the part that Saudi Arabia can play is obviouslyrestricted.