Mr. Secretary-General,
President, General Assembly,
President, ECOSOC,
Excellencies,

I would like to welcome you to this Ministerial meeting of the G-77 and China.

2. Today, the majority of the developing countries face unprecedented challenges to their economic progress as well as the danger of social and political turmoil.

3. Over the past three years, our economies and societies have been savaged by a series of crises: the Covid-19 pandemic; supply chain disruptions; spiraling prices; depreciating currencies; climate-induced disasters and geopolitical tensions, especially the Ukraine war and accompanying restrictions.

4. The immediate future looks bleak for most of our members. Global economic growth next year is predicted to be less than 3%. Food, fuel and other commodity prices remain high and volatile. Rising dollar interest rates have sucked back double the amount of FDI flows to the developing countries, depreciated developing countries’ currencies, and will further enlarge their debt service burden and ability to borrow in the markets. With the North also walking back from globalization, export-led growth is becoming difficult for most of our countries.

5. Moreover, climate change has transformed the nature of the development challenge. We need to not only achieve the SDG goals but also simultaneously recover from the loss and damage from climate impacts; adapt to avoid future impacts and we are expected to contribute to global mitigation targets.

6. Overcoming the development and climate challenges require herculean efforts by our governments. And, it requires extensive international solidarity and cooperation. The SDG financing “gap” has enlarged from $2.5 trillion in 2019 to over $4 trillion today. If the cost of climate objectives is added, we will need several additional trillions to achieve the SDGs and the climate objectives.

Excellencies,

7. Our people are suffering. 250 million face hunger. Famine haunts millions. 82 of our members are debt vulnerable; 54 are in debt distress. Financial austerity will freeze their growth and entrench and enlarge hunger and poverty. We must chart a path to break out of the poverty trap.

8. The purpose of this Conference is to initiate actions that respond to the urgent challenges confronting the developing countries and to outline a strategy to secure the reforms to the international financial and economic system required to achieve the SDGs and the Paris objectives.
9. We must thank the UN Secretary-General for setting up the Emergency Task Force and support many of its recommendations. We commend the Black Sea Grain Initiative and its continuation. We urge the WFP to ensure food supplies for the 250 million in hunger. We should fully support the Secretary-General’s SDG Stimulus proposal.

Excellencies,

10. The recently issued UNCTAD Trade & Development Report, the UNDP’s Debt Report and DESA’s analysis have identified several measures to support growth and development: a call for major Central Banks and the IMF to reverse rising interest rates; halt austerity programmes; provide fiscal space to the 82-debt distressed and vulnerable countries, including through the rechanneling of unused SDRs and debt service suspension and debt relief.

11. The relevant UN bodies also need to examine a mechanism to cap commodity and fuel prices for developing countries, ensure their access to food, fuel and fertilizer and discourage commodity speculation.

12. Furthermore, developing countries which continue to suffer from the severe impacts of climate change must be assisted, urgently and generously, to recover from these impacts, even as we start work on operationalizing the loss and damage fund agreed at CoP-27. In this context, my government is grateful to the UN Secretary-General for co-hosting the International Conference for a Resilient Pakistan in Geneva on 9 January 2023.

Excellencies,

13. Even as we endeavour to recover from the “crises” of recent years, the Group of 77 and China must take the lead in promoting the systemic and structural changes needed to revive sustainable global growth, induct equity in international economic relations and restore our economies on to a path leading to realization of the SDGs and environmental objectives.

14. To this end, we should first give life and substance to the Secretary-General’s call for the reform of the international financial architecture. This will involve several bold measures:

One, a multilateral mechanism for the sustainable management of sovereign debt, such as an improved Common Framework for collective debt relief and a new sovereign debt Authority.

Two, fulfilment of the agreed ODA target of 0.7 p.c. of the GNI of developed countries. It is evident that where and when they wish, in response to the pandemic or the Ukraine war, the developed countries can find ways to mobilize significant amounts of concessional money. Their ODA commitments cannot be allowed to be abandoned.

Three, the wide utilization of SDRs offers a critical and tested modality to generate financing for the SDGs and climate action. The $400 billion unutilized SDRs created in 2021 can and must be rechanneled to development and climate goals. New SDRs can be created, linked not to IMF quotas, but to development and climate needs. The MDBs and national development banks should be “recapitalized” and leverage this capital to mobilize 4/5 times the amount from the market. In this context, we welcome the bold proposals of the Prime Minister of Barbados in the Bridgeton initiative.

Four, mechanisms must be created to lower the borrowing costs for developing countries. This can be done through facilities such as the Liquidity and Sustainability Facility set up for Africa by the ex-Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Africa.

Five, developing countries must also make maximum efforts to mobilize significantly larger domestic resources by building their capital markets and enhancing tax coverage and revenues. To this end, the adoption of an equitable international tax regime is essential to prevent tax evasion and profit shifting by Multinational Corporations, including in digital transactions. Moreover, the illicit exploitation of natural resources is another drain on national revenues which remains to be effectively addressed at the global and regional level.

15. Second, the climate change agenda and climate commitments must be fully and faithfully implemented in accordance with the principle of equity and common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities. We call on the developed countries to fulfill their pledge to provide $100 billion plus annually in climate finance; allocate half of this to climate adaptation; and urgently operationalize the fund for “loss and damage”. We must also urge the developed countries to assume the burden of mitigation and reach net-zero emissions well before 2050.

16. Third, the transition to a sustainable global economy, will require the rapid installation of sustainable infrastructure – energy, transportation, housing, manufacturing, agriculture. An estimated investment of $1 trillion per year is needed. We should welcome initiatives such as China’s Belt and Road Initiatives and the G-7’s Global Infrastructure Initiative. We must also develop vehicles which can access private capital for high quality sustainable infrastructure investment in developing countries, including through “de-risking” such investments and enabling the MDBs and national development banks to leverage their capital to access private finance. At the same time, the preparation of a sizeable portfolio of viable infrastructure projects is indispensable to attract both public and especially private investment. The UN’s 125 Country Offices should be mobilized to help developing countries prepare such high-quality sustainable infrastructure projects. A multistakeholder Policy Board, under UN auspices, would be useful to promote sustainable infrastructure investment.

17. Fourth, the international trading system should be restructured to revive export led growth in the developing countries. This has been the principal route to growth in all “successful” developing countries. Unfortunately, the traditional advocates of open trade now want to build protectionist walls against an increasingly competitive South. Yet, a part from a few large emerging markets, most developing countries still require preferential, duty-free and non-discriminatory access to industrial country markets. These countries should also be offered the required policy space for industrialization e.g. through waivers from the TRIPS and TRIMS Agreements. And, unilateral trade protection and restrictions, incompatible with the WTO Agreements, should be speedily eliminated.

18. Fifth, an international technology agreement, aligned with the SDGs, should be adopted through inclusive negotiations. It should offer preferential access for developing countries to relevant advanced technologies and end discriminatory restrictions. It should also focus global research and development resources and capabilities on the scientific breakthroughs which are essential or relevant to achieving the SDGs and environmental objectives.

19. In parallel, it is vital to adopt an equitable international Information Technology regime which serves to bridge the digital divide and enables the developing countries to “leapfrog” into the global digital economy of the future. This can be encapsulated in the Digital Global Compact proposed by the Secretary-General.

Excellencies,

20. What I have outlined is an ambitious yet essential agenda. Our countries cannot realize the SDGs or Climate goals unless we make concrete progress on such an agenda. Without such emergency and systemic actions, the development divide will grow into an unbridgeable gulf, transforming our world into a Hobbesian nightmare, a world afflicted by massive human suffering, social and political instability, and proliferating conflicts, even as our planet and our species confront the mounting existential threat of a climate catastrophe. This apocalyptic prospect – if nothing else – should generate the political will and solidarity among all nations to act together to save the present and succeeding generations from the scourge of war, pestilence, poverty and an uninhabitable planet.

I thank you.