Throughout two-days in Johannesburg, Ms. Mohammed attended the G20 Finance Ministers assembly and the ‘Finance in Widespread’ Summit of Nationwide Growth Banks. She additionally spent a day in Cape City at a gathering of the G20 Finance Ministers and Central Financial institution Governors.
She represented Secretary-Common António Guterres at each stops and in her remarks in Cape City, she conveyed the UN’s assist for South Africa’s G20 presidency and emphasised the crucial position of the G20 in guiding the worldwide economic system and enhancing prospects for sustainable improvement.
“The world is dangerously off monitor in reaching the Sustainable Growth Targets,” Ms. Mohammed acknowledged. “Whereas we now have made progress on many elements of our improvement agenda, we now have additionally confronted a number of setbacks, together with the pandemic, new conflicts, slowing world development, and escalating borrowing prices.”
Ms. Mohammed highlighted the necessity for proactive measures to assist growing international locations overwhelmed by debt service, broaden improvement finance, and create a stronger world monetary security internet. She burdened the significance of fairer and extra environment friendly tax techniques, noting that strong fiscal techniques drive financial development, alleviate poverty, and cut back inequalities.
In Cape City, Ms. Mohammed acknowledged the difficult world financial setting, with projected GDP development falling under pre-pandemic ranges and growing international locations struggling to converge with richer nations.
She outlined three key actions for the G20: strengthening multilateral improvement banks, adopting a complete method to the debt disaster, and enhancing the worldwide monetary security internet with the Worldwide Financial Fund (IMF) at its core.
“We want a world monetary structure that may assist economies to develop, liberating them from a vicious cycle the place excessive debt results in low funding, low funding to low development, and low development again to excessive debt,” she emphasised.
The UN deputy chief additionally engaged with ministers and leaders of worldwide monetary establishments and improvement banks to align efforts forward of the Fourth Worldwide Convention on Financing for Growth, scheduled for June 30 to July 3, 2025, in Sevilla, Spain.
She underscored the crucial position of this convention in renewing the worldwide financing framework and reaching the 2030 Agenda, urging assist for formidable proposals to raise public improvement banks and reform the worldwide monetary structure.
Addressing the problem of home useful resource mobilization, Ms. Mohammed highlighted the $4 trillion annual financing hole for sustainable improvement and the crucial position of home public finance.
“Home public finance is important for financing the Sustainable Growth Targets, growing fairness, and strengthening macroeconomic stability,” she stated, and referred to as for future-ready tax insurance policies to make sure truthful world taxation and the significance of worldwide tax cooperation to fight tax avoidance and illicit monetary flows.
Ms. Mohammed famous that many growing international locations have important unmet tax potential and have invested in tax reforms to unlock this potential. She emphasised the necessity for sustained funding in capability improvement based mostly on nation wants and priorities. “Strengthening tax techniques requires sustained funding in capability improvement based mostly on nation wants and priorities,” she acknowledged.
The upcoming convention in Sevilla presents a pivotal second to show commitments into actions and construct a fairer, simpler worldwide tax system. “The Fourth Worldwide Convention on Financing for Growth presents a pivotal second to show commitments for home tax reforms into actions, and make tax techniques extra truthful, clear, environment friendly, and efficient,” Ms. Mohammed remarked.
In conclusion, the deputy UN chief urged the G20 to guide these reforms, emphasizing that with the fitting political will, the connection between finance and improvement may be remodeled from a vicious cycle right into a virtuous one.
“With the fitting reforms, and with ample political will, we will rework the connection between finance and improvement from a vicious cycle right into a virtuous one. That is the promise of South Africa’s G20 presidency – and of your management,” she concluded.
