Saudi Arabia’s finance minister said on Wednesday that no final decision has been made on whether the G20 leaders summit will be physical or virtual and the Kingdom is still considering the matter, according to Reuters.
Finance Minister Mohammed al-Jadaan was speaking at a Bloomberg event.
In December 2019, Saudi Arabia assumed the G20 presidency. The 2020 G20 Riyadh summit will be the fifteenth meeting of Group of Twenty (G20), and is currently slated to be held on November 21-22 in the Saudi capital. The G20 consists of the 19 world’s largest economies and the European Union. Saudi Arabia is the only Arab country that is part of the bloc. Together, G20 countries represent two thirds of the world’s population, 85% of its economy, and 75% of the world trade.
The G20 will bring together the world’s economic leaders in November.
In the run-up to the summit, Saudi Arabia will continue to host preparatory ministerial meetings, as well as meetings for senior government officials, and representatives of international organizations, the private sector, and civil society.
Saudi Arabia has hosted several such events, including virtual meetings on global action to fight the spread of the Coronavirus and mitigate global economic damage.
An in-person G20 would be big business for Saudi Arabia, as a Jadwa Investment report highlighted in January, before the spread of the Coronavirus.
The Kingdom has yet to re-open international flights as it seeks defeat the domestic spread of COVID-19.
