As leaders of the world's biggest economies are holding a Group of 20 (G20) summit in China, world media show a growing interest in what the summit may achieve.
Trade is an important theme of the summit.
According to The Associated Press (AP), G20 leaders have vowed to promote global trade on different occasions. Moreover, U.S. President Barack Obama, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and other leaders will speak out against protectionism at the event. But a number of G20 politicians are meanwhile calling for more control on imports to protect local industry, said the AP.
Global trade faces challenges, warned Christine Lagarde, head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
Expecting lower world economic growth, the IMF has issued a note to G20 leaders, urging them to make a stronger case for the benefits of trade, according to a Reuter report on Wednesday.
Lagarde will tell G20 leaders that further reductions in growth potential and more obstacles to the free movement of goods, services, capital and people would hurt all of them, said the report.
Indeed, the global economy has been sluggish for quite a while and many uncertainties adds to the risks.
With Britain exiting the European Union, Japan considering more easing, Germany skeptical of stimulus and China pressed on its industrial overcapacity, G20 members currently have too few common interests to stick to difficult commitments, Agence France-Presse (AFP) quoted some analysts as saying.
Climate change, efforts to reduce surplus production capacity in steel and other industries and limits on use of tax havens are all hot topics, said the AP on Wednesday.
In another AFP report, Climate Transparency, a nongovernmental group of international research centers, praised summit host China for taking more action than many countries on low-carbon economy.
The group rated China, India, France, Germany, the United States and Britain best in terms of investment attractiveness while urging Russia, Saudi Arabia and Turkey to do better, the AFP said.
As it is the first time for British Prime Minister Theresa May to attend a global event after taking office in July, the British newspaper The Telegraph said she may face five key challenges: how to tackle the China-involved Hinkley Point project, meeting Russian President Vladimir Putin, handling the Brexit fallout, securing relations with the United States and tackling the migrant crisis.
The 2016 G20 summit in Hangzhou, China, has chosen "Toward an Innovative, Invigorated, Interconnected and Inclusive World Economy" as its theme.
