Cairns, Australia: US Treasury Secretary Jack Lew on Friday called for greater efforts to boost the global growth rate while hailing the US economy as “a source of strength”.

Lew urged a greater focus on investment and infrastructure to help create jobs in comments made ahead of this weekend’s meeting of G20 finance ministers and central bankers taking place in the northern Australian city of Cairns.

“The US continues to be a source of strength in the global economy,” he said, pointing to the US unemployment rate currently at a six-year low with 10 million jobs created by the private sector over the past 54 months.

“Overall, the global economy continues to underperform. This is particularly true in the euro area and Japan, while a number of emerging market economies are also slowing.

“More work is needed to achieve faster and more balanced growth, to boost demand, especially in surplus countries and to promote employment,” he added.

“Part of this growth agenda is a focus on investment and infrastructure. We see investment, both public and private, as a key to boosting growth.”

A key focus for the finance ministers this weekend will be making tangible progress on an ambitious goal to raise the total GDP of the grouping’s countries by at least two per cent over the next five years — a target they set at a meeting in Sydney earlier this year.

To meet the goal they pledged to work on reforms to accelerate infrastructure investment, lift employment and enhance trade, but a sickly Eurozone recovery and weakening emerging economies threaten to hamper their efforts.

Tensions in Ukraine and the Middle East have spooked the Eurozone, while stagnation and deflation risks in Europe and Japan and the US moving to normalise its monetary policy have added to concerns.

Despite this, Australian Treasurer Joe Hockey, who will chair the Cairns meeting, said more than 900 submissions had been made by participating countries to meet the growth target.

“I think it is hugely important the contribution that countries have made, and infrastructure is a key part of that agenda,” Hockey said.

“Greater involvement of the private sector in delivering infrastructure is a hugely significant issue for G20 countries.

“We will be very focused on how to achieve our ambitious two per cent improvement in GDP by 2018,” the Australian treasurer added.

As well as infrastructure investment, the meeting will also look at ways to bolster reforms in competition and deregulation in a bid to create jobs.

A key outcome from Cairns should be progress on a common reporting standard to stop multinational companies from shifting profits to avoid tax, with the OECD putting forward proposals this week.

Movement is also expected on financial regulation and rules to reduce the problem of “too-big-to-fail” banks, while free trade, anticorruption measures and reforming global institutions are also set to be discussed.