“The G20 Seoul Summit will increase South Korea’s standing in international society and will be an opportunity for South Korea to promote its image abroad,” Sohn, a former CNN correspondent, told Arab News here in a recent interview.

It is generally believed that the summit will contribute to solving the North Korean nuclear issue. “The summit is welcomed by all as it helps the country join the ranks of developed countries,” she added.

“Of course, security will be uppermost as world leaders are converging on the city for the summit,” she said. South Korea plans an unprecedented peacetime mobilization of soldiers and police to minimize any trouble when it plays host to the leaders of the world’s top 20 economies.  South Korea’s military, coast guard and police said they are preparing for all imaginable disruptions during the summit in Seoul. Such disruptions include large demonstrations, riots, terror and cyber-attacks, and attempts by rival North Korea to spoil the meeting.

She said: “South Korea has ample experience in holding such an event, notably the successful 2002 World Cup and the 2005 APEC summit. Even so, they say severe traffic congestion can be expected throughout the capital during the summit.

The fifth G20 summit is expected to be the largest so far attracting 10,000 participants, including 32 heads of government and leaders of international organizations.

The leaders attending include US President Obama, Chinese President Hu Jintao, and the heads of several Gulf, Middle East and European countries.  In addition, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and the heads of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank will be there. South Korea recently became a donor nation from a recipient of aid.

The G20 summit is expected to adopt a 100-point plan to address poverty, food shortages and industrialization in underdeveloped countries around the world, marking it the first time development issues will appear on the agenda of a G20 summit.

There are many connections between industrialized countries and developing ones, not just aid but also trade, investment, environmental policy and other linkages. The failure to use these channels to their full potential is a blow to the goal of shared global prosperity.

Above all, the world economic crisis and its adverse impact will be deliberated at the summit. “If the G20 Summit is successful, then the global economy can be on a recovery course,” Sohn said. As it is, the economic balance is shifting from its concentration on the advanced West to the developing world elsewhere.  “There are lessons to learn from each crisis, and the world can draw a big lesson from the worst economic downturn,” she said, adding that the Islamic banking system has found to be better than the Western system in this context. “If the economies in the Islamic world have remained less affected by the world economic crisis compared to their Western counterparts, it’s due to the Islamic banking system,” Sohn said. “It’s the beginning stage for South Africa so far as Islamic banking is concerned, maybe our financial system is not well-developed, so we have to go slowly in this regard.”
 
She expected the Kingdom, as leader of the Middle East region and with a sound and stable economy, to play an effective role in shaping the outcome of the summit.