Inception Meeting January 21st-22nd 2021

The B20 Inception Meeting, the official G20 dialogue forum with the business community, marked the official beginning of the Italian presidency for the B20, addressing the global economics’ most urgent challenges. The agenda was divided into two separated parts.

January 21 (Day 1) was a public event. It was opened by the B20 Chair Emma Marcegaglia, the President of Confindustria Carlo Bonomi and the Minister of Economy of Finance Roberto Gualtieri who represented the Italian Government. The opening was followed by a line-up of esteemed and prominent international speakers from politics and international organizations, and major companies’ CEOs who started the panel sessions dedicated to: “Providing Sustainable Economic Recovery”, Redesigning the Post-COVID 19 world economy”, and “Making global governance more effective”. Some of the speakers where: John Kerry (the United States Special Presidential Envoy for Climate), Larry Fink (CEO of BlackRock), David Sassoli (President of the European Parliament), David Beasley (Executive director of the World Food Program), David Walker (Chair of the WTO General Council), Dario Scannapieco (Vice President of the European Investment Bank, and Michael R. Bloomberg (Founder of Bloomberg L.P. and Bloomberg Philanthropies).

With the words “Italy’s G20 cycle faces epochal challenges but can be a game-changer. Business is committed to ensuring that 2021 is remembered for social, economic, and environmental regeneration worldwide”, the President of Confindustria Carlo Bonomi opened the Inception Meeting. The B20 Chair Emma Marcegaglia followed by pointing out the importance of a real and fruitful partnership between the B20 and G20 stating “Business can help governments and International Organizations to prompt resilience plans and contingency responses. We are determined to achieve concrete results and convey policy recommendations that will have to be duly considered, adopted, and enforced. To be concretely synergic with the G20, we will estimate their impact against the UN SDGs and the G20’s Ps – People, Planet and Prosperity”.

The day was followed by almost 4.000 participants from all the G20 countries through B20’s and Confindustria’s official website, another 7.000 followed through the leading social media.

January 22 (Day 2) was a closed-door event, exclusively for the B20 members, representing the kick-off of the seven Task Forces’ and the Action Council’s activities. In the first plenary session, each Task Forces/Action Council Chair summed up their inception document’s main features, these documents are foundation papers providing ground for the B20 activities for the whole year of the presidency. Subsequently, the Task Force/Action Council members met separately for a more in-depth assessment of their respective matters and topics, paving the way for the following discussions.

B20 Italy is the private sector’s official voice of the G20 and includes over 1.000 delegates from the G20 countries, including top executives from the leading multinational corporations. They represent a community with over 6.5 million businesses.
The B20 Italy’s claim “Reshape the Future: Include, Share and Impact” testifies the business community’s determination to stand alongside and support the G20 in dealing with the unprecedented challenges that stand ahead of our time.

Over the next few months, the seven Task Forces and the action Council will work intensely on developing impactful and differentiated policy recommendations which will be handed over to the G20 Presidency at the B20 Final Summit, which will take place in Rome on October 7-8.

These recommendations cover all the global economic agendas’ most urgent priorities, including Trade & Investment, Energy & Resources Efficiency, Integrity & Compliance, Employment & Education, Digital Transformation, Finance & Infrastructure, and Health & Life Science. The Action Council is dedicated to Sustainability & Global Emergencies and will address the G20 to face systemic threats under a sustainability-oriented and coordinated framework. Furthermore, at the Inception Meeting, a Special Initiative – Women Empowerment – was announced to generate strong policy recommendations on this matter through a transparent and inclusive interaction with other stakeholders and G20 Engagement Groups.