Pressure is growing on the G20 to deliver a communiqué that has tangible results for the global economy.

Australia's presidency of the G20 meeting of finance ministers and central bank governors in Sydney has begun but it ends on Sunday.

Already delegates have been urged to agree on a range of strategies, from boosting global growth to cracking down on multinational companies that do not pay their fair share of tax.

The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) released a major report titled Going for Growth - a key theme of the G20 summit.

The report also backs Australia's push to encourage infrastructure investment by private companies, given the Government's depleted Treasury coffers.

But the OECD's secretary-general, Angel Gurria, says a bigger challenge will be getting the major G20 players to deliver a communiqué on Sunday that is tangible but at the same time manages expectations.

"I think the question is to say to the public exactly what they can expect about this," he said.

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"Too higher expectations is typically the challenge but [we are] fundamentally going through a very difficult moment, a very complex moment, where some countries are going up.

"But it's a legacy of the crisis."

Mr Gurria also wants broad agreement on tax reform and a commitment to crack down on multinational companies that use complex offshore mechanisms to avoid paying tax.

"Which is hopefully going to eliminate the banking secrecy issues and so there'll be nowhere to hide in terms of paying your taxes," he said.

"Not only Google and Apple but every single company that operates trans-nationally. If the big companies don't pay taxes, who's going to be left to pay the taxes? The medium and small enterprises? The middle-class? There's a limit to that."

Hockey wants focus on infrastructure

Treasurer Joe Hockey - who is president of the Sydney summit - also wants to crack down on corporate tax dodgers.

"We obviously will be working through a large number of issues over the weekend, from taxation arrangements to ensure that there is great transparency and fairer outcomes in the disclosure of tax liabilities and tax collections," he said.

"And of course we will be focusing on infrastructure and the infrastructure challenge is very significant, not just for the developing world but for the developed world as well."

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In one of the day's several photo opportunities, Mr Hockey posed with US treasury secretary Jack Lew.

Mr Lew and the newly appointed chairwoman of the US Federal Reserve, Janet Yellen, are under pressure as the pain of the US stimulus withdrawal continues to hurt emerging economies.

But Mr Lew is sticking to the diplomatic script and once again the key message is growth.

"Despite signs of improvement, globally growth remains uneven and well below potential," he said.

"The growth strategies that we will be developing must be ambitious in substance and address both deficiencies in near-term demand as well as longer-term economic challenges."

Mr Hockey is pushing for a two-page communiqué on Sunday after the last summit delivered 27 pages.

How is the G20 summit perceived on the street ... or the beach?

But will it make any difference to everyday Australians?

The ABC spoke to a range of beachgoers at Bondi to gauge awareness of the G20's deliberations.

"Excited to be honest. I'm just a simple guy that wouldn't have much to know about it," one said.

"G20? What's the G20? What's the G20? I don't know. I don't know about him," said another.

"G20? I don't know. Are they in town? What are they doing?" asked another.

Other had stronger opinions.

"They should go back where they came from because it's totally useless," one said.

"It gains nothing, they do nothing, they spend our money, waste our money and achieve absolutely nothing at all."

"One big talkfest, they achieve nothing, makes no difference. So I agree they should go back home," said another.

So far this G20, protestors have stayed away from the three big venues in Sydney.

The meeting continues tomorrow when finance ministers and central bank governors meet behind closed doors to hammer out the global issues and what they are prepared to agree on.