National Treasury Director-General (DG), Dr Duncan Pieterse, has called for large scale and sustainable investments to ensure the global community meets its commitments to end poverty, protect the planet and build prosperous societies.
“Financing gaps for sustainable development are large and growing. The estimates by our international organisations indicate that around $4 trillion in additional investments is needed annually for developing countries,” Pieterse said on Wednesday in Johannesburg.
He was speaking during the two-day Group of Twenty (G20) Joint Sherpa and Finance Track meeting.
According to the United Nations (UN), the world may miss many of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) targets by 2030 due to the delay in development progress, which may even be reversed under the combined weight of climate disasters, conflict, economic downturn and the lingering aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Sustainable Development Goals are a universal call to action to end poverty, protect the planet and improve the lives and prospects of everyone, everywhere.
“To achieve the SDGs by the 2030 deadline, an urgent large scale and sustainable investments push is needed,” Pieterse said.
The DG said South Africa’s G20 Presidency will strongly focus on the challenges facing emerging markets and developing countries, especially those on the African continent.
“We will also focus our attention on policies and mechanisms that support sustainable development. Many developing countries, including those in Africa experience growth that is insufficient to reduce poverty, as well as tough financing conditions and high levels of public debt that crowd out resources or development spending
“During our Presidency, there will be a very strong focus on enhancing debt sustainability through a comprehensive approach, which will include... finding ways to improve debt structuring, supporting countries with liquidity challenges and encouraging the development of local currency markets to attract domestic savings and improve debt transparency,” Pieterse said.
South Africa will also continue to obtain borrower country perspectives on debt, including through an African outreach event, with broad participation of the borrower countries.
On 1 December 2024, South Africa assumed the Presidency of the G20 group of countries, which comprises many of the world's largest developing and developed economies.
“The global economy has been put to the test over the last four years, marked by an unprecedented pandemic, escalation in geopolitical conflict and extreme weather events that have disrupted supply chains.
“The latest assessment by the International Monetary Fund that global growth is expected to remain stable, yet underwhelming, remains a concern. Higher growth is essential to improve prosperity and living standards to reduce debt, and create policy space to tackle our spending pressures,” Pieterse said.
In 2025, South Africa’s G20 Presidency will focus on strengthening macroeconomic fundamentals, accelerating climate transition and boosting productivity growth.
This week's discussion under the South Africa G20 Presidency takes place ahead of two very important events -- the 5th Finance in Common Summit (FiCS), taking place in Cape Town in February 2025, and the Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development (FfD), which will take place in Spain in June 2025.
“We see these events as very important opportunities to strengthen the development finance ecosystem, scale up and redirect financing to meet our global sustainable challenges, and bring impactful changes in relation to climate and biodiversity needs.
“As we prepare to submit our Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) in 2025, it is clear that our very ambitious climate action goals cannot be achieved without unlocking a similarly ambitious set of climate instruments.
“The G20 must continue to play a leading role to address the critical issues of our age, so that we can achieve both global sustainable development and development that is inclusive, equitable and leaves no one behind,” Pieterse said.
South Africa's G20 Presidency is the fourth consecutive emerging market Presidency, and it is also the first African Presidency, followed by the admission of the African Union (AU) as the second permanent African member.
The G20 was established to tackle pressing global economic and financial issues. Together, G20 members account for around 85% of global GDP and 75% of international trade.
The G20 comprises 19 countries including Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Republic of Korea, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Türkiye, United Kingdom, and United States and two regional bodies, namely the European Union and the African Union.
The grouping therefore plays a critical role in influencing global policy making and fostering global economic stability. - SAnews.gov.za
