South Africa, the 2025 G20 Presidency, hosted its first G20 Finance and Central Bank Deputies Meeting and Joint Sherpa-Finance and Central Bank Deputies Meeting in Johannesburg from Dec 11 to 12, 2024. The meetings focused on the 2025 G20 Finance Track work plan and priorities, including the global economy, international financial architecture, infrastructure, sustainable finance, international taxation, and finance-health coordination. Liao Min, China’s Vice Minister of Finance, was present and spoke at the meetings.

Liao highlighted China's commitment to working with all parties to advance cooperation in the G20 Finance Track in 2025. He stressed that the G20 Finance Track should focus on its core mandate, deepen policy coordination and practical cooperation, jointly address global challenges, and improve the global economic governance system and international financial architecture.

During his interventions, Liao shared China’s experience and proposals in areas such as infrastructure, health financing, tax cooperation, and multilateral development bank reforms. He also presented China’s efforts, through platforms like the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation and other bilateral and multilateral channels, to assist African nations in addressing debt and liquidity challenges and to support their development. Liao emphasized China's readiness to strengthen alignment with the G20 agenda and to work with G20 members to help developing countries, including those in Africa, achieve economic growth, increase employment, and pursue sustainable development.

Prior to the meetings, Liao held bilateral meetings with South Africa's G20 Finance Deputy Duncan Pieterse, African Union’s Commissioner for Trade and Industry Albert Muchanga, and officials from the finance ministries of the UK and Germany to understand their thinking and positions on the agenda of the G20 Finance Track for 2025. During these meetings, Liao underscored China’s strong support for developing countries and African nations.

On the sidelines of the meetings, Liao also met and held talks with representatives from the finance ministries of G20 members and guest countries, including the United States, France, Canada, Brazil, Australia, India, Saudi Arabia, the European Union and Singapore, as well as representatives of international organizations, including the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, the United Nations, the World Health Organization and the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development. Liao discussed with them on bilateral and multilateral financial cooperation, while also introducing the effects of China's recent large-scale counter-cyclical measures and policies and reaffirming China's commitment to high-level opening-up and steadfast support for multilateralism.