With Prime Minister Julia Gillard having disclosed last month that the G20 summit in 2014 will be hosted by Brisbane, Federal Treasurer Wayne Swan has revealed in a recent announcement that the associated summit of G20 Finance Ministers, to be held prior to the main G20 forum, will be hosted at Cairns - the far north Queensland city.

Swan confirmed on Sunday that Cairns had been selected as the location for the finance chiefs’ summit, associated with the November 2014-scheduled G20 conference. However, before Cairns was selected as the location for the meeting, leaders from a few regional cities - including the Gold Coast, Townsville and Toowoomba – had also shown interest in hosting the event. 

According to Swan, the opportunity to host the mentioned meeting will give the Cairns economy a "very significant boost," especially in the wake of the fact that the city will host nearly 2000 people traveling to the region in connection with the event.

Describing far north Queensland as “the gateway to the emerging world in Asia,” Swan said during an interview with Network Ten that the hosting the meeting of the finance chiefs of the world's 20 biggest economies was a “tremendous opportunity” for Cairns.

Meanwhile, welcoming the decision about Cairns hosting the international meeting of finance ministers, ahead of the G20 summit in Brisbane, Premier Campbell Newman told the media that “Cairns will benefit greatly from this announcement," and added: “It spreads the financial, economic advantages of having G20 in Queensland.