President Cyril Ramaphosa has described his working visit to Japan for the G20 Summit as a success and congratulated Japan on hosting a well-organised summit, the presidency said on Sunday.

Ramaphosa on Sunday concluded the two-day working visit to Osaka in Japan, where he led the South African delegation to the G20 Summit, the presidency said in a statement.

The summit was attended by heads of state and government of the G20 member countries, which collectively account for 85% of global economic activity and two-thirds of the world’s population. The summit presented a platform for critical engagement and high-level cooperation on efforts to address major global economic challenges.

In the interest of advancing African development, the leaders reaffirmed their commitment to the timely implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Addis Ababa Action Agenda. There were also enhanced roles for the World Bank, African Development Bank, and International Monetary Fund to implement the compact with Africa. This initiative would contribute to the realisation of the African Union's Agenda 2063.

Future summits would also take stock of progress in curbing illicit financial flows, the presidency said.

On trade and investment, the summit committed to work towards a free, fair, non-discriminatory, transparent, predictable, stable, and open market environment.

Regarding digitalisation, global leaders agreed that to harness the full potential of data, there needed to be data flow with trust, to be enabled through international policy discussions on the sharing of good practices and regulatory frameworks.

Additionally, the G20 would implement its anti-corruption action plan for 2019 to 2021, which strengthened synergies among related international instruments. There was also strong will among the majority of the member countries to pursue the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement's goals of dealing with climate change.

Ahead of the summit, Ramaphosa convened the standing trilateral meeting with African Union chair President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi of Egypt and Nepad chair President Macky Sall of Senegal. The discussion made it possible for these leaders to consolidated Africa's position around the summit's agenda, the presidency said.

Ramaphosa was also invited to participate in the China-Africa (South Africa, Egypt, Senegal and with the participation of the United Nations secretary general) leaders meeting. The meeting exchanged views on the priorities for the G20, the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (Focac), and Africa's development agenda.

The president further participated in the standing informal Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa (Brics) leaders’ meeting chaired by Brazil. The meeting reflected on the current geo-political environment and sought collaboration and synergies among Brics members in preparation for the G20 Summit.

Ramaphosa also had numerous bilateral meetings to strengthen relations with Russia, China, Japan, and Saudi Arabia, and the president of the World Bank. 

He concluded his Osaka programme by engaging with business during the Japan-South Africa CEO Business Roundtable. The engagement was chaired by Trade and Industry Minister Ebrahim Patel and included more than 20 Japanese business representatives and a South African business contingent. The event offered a unique platform to explore business opportunities and build partnerships in South Africa and Japan, the presidency said.