SEOUL: A forum of 100 global business chiefs will be held alongside the next G20 summit to underscore the Group of 20`s role as the top world body for economic cooperation, officials said Thursday.

South Korea, which chairs the G20 leaders` meeting on November 11-12 in Seoul, will push to make the business summit a regular part of the G20 process.

Previous G20 summits have also included business chiefs, but organisers of the November 10-11 business summit said it would be the largest such gathering and would be closely linked to the main summit.

The chief executives will freely discuss their economic concerns at a round table with the political leaders, organisers said.

The Seoul G20 summit, the fifth to be held by leaders of the 20 top world economies, will mark the start of a transition "from a crisis response mode to post-crisis mode", said Kwon Hae-Ryong, director-general of the organising committee.

"It will mean that the G20 will be able further to solidify its status as the premier forum for global economic cooperation."

South Korea wants to make the business summit part of the G20 process to open up a channel for participation by the private sector.

Organisers said they had confirmed acceptances from leading companies in various industries including private equity (Blackstone), credit cards (Visa), steel (ArcelorMittal), food (Nestle), nuclear power (Areva), cellphone semiconductor chips (Qualcomm), rail transport (Alstom), wind power (Vestas), auto parts (Bosch), iron ore production (Vale), water treatment (Veolia) and outsourcing for retailers (Li & Fung).

Acceptances had also been received from CEOs of the largest companies in a particular field in each continent or nation, including HSBC, Takeda Pharmaceutical, Deutsche Bank, Total, Eni, Repsol and Nomura Holdings.

Organisers said they would press the next chair of the G20 to regularise the business summit as part of overall proceedings, assuming the Seoul event is successful.

"The global financial crisis is in a recovery stage but what recovery has been possible was achieved from the public sector," said Sakong Il, chairman of the G20 organising committee.

"We need to make the recovery more robust. To do that, we need to ensure there is the right investment and the right environment for the private sector."

BDST: 1206 HRS, August 05, 2010