Multi-stakeholder round table 2: "Leveraging private business and finance" - 4th International Conference on Financing for Development FFD4 (Sevilla, Spain)

Distinguished Heads of State and Government, distinguished Ministers, distinguished representatives of observers, entities of the United Nations system and other accredited intergovernmental organisations, representatives of civil society, Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen, I call to order the second multi-stakeholder roundtable of the fourth International Conference on Financing for Development on the theme, leveraging private business and finance. Let me take this opportunity to cordially welcome all of you to this multi-stakeholder roundtable. I'm honored to serve as your co-chair together with His Excellency Christopher McLennan, Deputy Minister of International Development of Canada. The summary of our discussions here today will be presented to the closing plenary meeting of the conference in the afternoon of Thursday, 3rd of July. Before we proceed, I would like to make some introductory remarks about the theme of our discussion today. Excellencies, distinguished delegates, ladies and gentlemen, It is both a privilege and an urgent responsibility to chair this roundtable on leveraging private business and finance at a time when developing economies of the global south are navigating profound challenges from climate vulnerability to human development inequities. Public resources alone cannot bridge the massive financing gap for sustainable development estimated at trillions of dollars annually. It is private finance, including philanthropic capital working in concert with public policy that can unlock development at scale. Our task is to identify how we can catalyze this partnership. In addressing today's core questions, let me briefly frame the discussion. First, at the national and global levels, we need decisive action to unlock sustainable development. This includes strengthening domestic resource mobilization, deepening capital markets with SDG-linked instruments, embedding SDG-aligned incentives into national policy frameworks, and reforming the global financial architecture to better serve the needs of developing economies in particular. We must also advance fairer sovereign risk assessments that recognize reform trajectories and climate vulnerabilities. Second, To create an enabling environment for private investment in SDG-aligned sectors, we must focus on predictability, transparency, and policy coherence. This means improving regulatory certainty, offering SDG-linked incentives, and scaling up blended finance vehicles that de-risk private capital in critical areas like climate adaptation, affordable housing, and SME financing.

Third.

Mechanisms that crowd in private capital must be mainstreamed, including credit guarantees, outcome linked bonds, debt for climate swaps, and catalytic first loss instruments. Public funds must be used smartly to leverage multiples in private investment rather than substitute it. We must use today's dialogue to gather concrete recommendations that can feed into global financing for development processes and help deliver a future that is equitable, green, and inclusive. I now invite my fellow co-chair, His Excellency Christopher MacLennan, Deputy Minister of International Development of Canada, to make his opening remarks.

Thank you. I would like to thank first my fellow co-chair, His Excellency, Muhammad Aurangzeb, Federal Minister for Finance and Revenue of Pakistan. I will now proceed to make some introductory remarks. Excellencies, distinguished delegates, ladies and gentlemen, it is a pleasure to join you today at the fourth International Conference on Financing for Development. I'm especially pleased to engage on leveraging private business and finance to accelerate progressing development finance. The reality is clear. Public finance alone will not be sufficient to meet the scale of investment required to achieve the sustainable development goals. Mobilizing private capital is not just a complementary strategy, it is essential. Canada has long recognized this. Since launching climate finance program in 2012, we have been at the forefront of blended finance. In 2018, during our G7 presidency, we helped to establish the Charlevoix Commitment on Innovative Finance, laying the groundwork for more effective public-private collaboration. As today's discussion will focus on the policy actions needed to unlock private sector investment, I would like to take this opportunity to highlight how Canada is advancing this priority. Through the Seville Platform for Action, Canada is proud to be contributing to this important work. First, we have co-led the development of the Common Principles for Private Capital Mobilization, which represent a significant step forward in aligning global efforts to scale private investment in sustainable development. These principles are a critical step forward as they provide a comprehensive and ambitious roadmap for action. They identify systemic barriers such as fragmented standards, availability and accessibility of data, as well as highlight the importance of enhanced partnerships and ensuring the right enabling conditions for private sector mobilization exist. The common principles offer a roadmap for harmonized approaches, greater transparency, and stronger alignment between public and private actors. Importantly, they reflect a shift toward a system-wide approach that can unlock private sector at capital. But we recognize the principles alone are not enough. That's why Canada has also co-led the development of Scaled, Scaling Capital for Sustainable Development. This initiative translates the common principles for mobilization into practice. Scaled is a new joint public-private effort that aims to address complex donor requirements and lack of standardization in blended finance to reduce fragmentation and build a more enabling environment for private investment from the outset. We are proud to be working with donor governments in Germany, South Africa, France, and the United Kingdom, and private sector partners, Allianz, AXA, Caisse de depots et placements du Quebec, and Zurich Insurance to uniquely create Scaled. The time for action is now. Canada is committed to leading by example through the common principles, through Scaled, and through our continued engagement in many global partnerships. Together, we can unlock the full potential of private finance to drive sustainable development. I'm looking forward to today's discussion and to hearing from all of you about your highest priorities for unlocking private sector finance. I am also keen to understand the barriers you're encountering in mobilizing private capital and, more importantly, how we can work together to achieve our shared vision and overcome these challenges and foster greater private participation. Thank you very much.

I thank my fellow co-chair for these remarks. We shall now hear an address by a keynote speaker. I have the honor to invite His Excellency, Mahmoud Ali Youssouf, Chairperson of the African Union Commission, to address the roundtable.

Co-chairs, distinguished.

Delegates, ladies and gentlemen, I'm honored to participate in this roundtable on the topic of leveraging private business and finance. The private sector has always played a central role in development. involvement today remains essential. This is one of the accelerating factors for achieving the 2030 agenda and the sustainable development goals. And so our member states are creating the ideal conditions to promote private investment. Furthermore, the rule of law, good governance and the fight against corruption are part of this enabling environment. It's clear that bureaucratic burdens and the difficulties in creating businesses does not help the emergence of a robust business sector. The other bottleneck is around domestic capital markets. It is essential that we strengthen the banking sector that above all must propose innovative financial instruments. This approach must be accompanied by a flexible insurance and guarantee system by promoting blended finance in order to reduce risk, the perception of risk. Ladies and gentlemen, the cost of capital for businesses and African projects continues to be too high. It is essential that we explore new tools for risk mitigation. Africa has a very dynamic informal sector and SMEs in particular, those led by women and young people. And it is this category that we must emphasize when it comes to financial inclusion, micro companies and startups and digital literacy. This is the future of our continent with our youth. Together with synergies involving the private sector and development partners, together we shall be able to catalyze a system that can bring us growth and development.

We have taken bold steps to support private business development with the African Free Trade Area. This ambitious initiative creates a single market of 1.4 billion people with a combined GDP of $4.3 trillion, offering unparalleled opportunities for businesses to scale, innovate, and thrive. The AfCFTA's private sector engagement strategy, coupled with investment protocol, aims to foster a predictable and transparent legal framework that encourages intra-African investment in particular in key sectors such as pharmaceuticals, automotive, agro-processing and logistics. Through the African Continental Free Trade Area, private sector investment and financing framework, we are committed to mobilize at least one trillion in investments towards critical infrastructure and industrialization by 2030, supported by mechanism like the CFTA Adjustment Fund, and strategic public-private partnership. To conclude, it is imperative that we urgently undertake deep reforms of our multilateral economic and financial processes. Our ability to harness the transformative power of private business and finance hinges on a global financial architecture fit for the 21st century, one that reforms debt and climate financing. establishes a conducive international tax architecture, and revitalizes the multilateral trading system. While these are significant challenges, our collective commitment, combined with the immense potential of private business and finance, offers a clear pathway to a prosperous and sustainable Africa. I am deeply convinced that by working together with urgency and shared purpose, we can transform these challenges into tangible solutions for our people, the planet and shared prosperity.

I thank you.

I thank the Chairperson of the African Union Commission. I am now pleased to welcome the distinguished presenters for this discussion. I also welcome Mr. Antonio Pinheiro Silveira, Vice President for the Private Sector at the Development Bank of Latin America and the Caribbean, who will moderate this discussion. I now turn the meeting over to the moderator. I look forward to an open, constructive, and productive exchange of views. Thank you.

Thank you very much, Mr. Co-Chair. Ladies and gentlemen, good morning. pleasure to be here moderating this very important session on leveraging private business and finance. This is a central piece on all the effort for development. And we have here a list of very important panelists that will drive this session. We have today as panelists Her Excellency Mr. Neil Richenberg, Minister of Finance for the Kingdom of Eswatini. We do have with us Her Excellency Mrs. Ristisloy Metrayani, Minister of Finance and Development for in Planning for Lesotho. Mr. Mulambo Jaime, Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation for Zambia. and Mr. Boris Titov, special representative of the president of the Russian Federation for relations with international organizations. Good morning. Mobilizing private investment, private finance, leveraging private sector. Modern development theory signs that development means leveraging a vibrant and competitive private sector that may be able to bring all together to increase in standard of life and happiness. The mobilization of private resources is a fundamental effort and the centerpiece of this modern strategy and has to be leveraged by government finance interaction investments and official development aid. that we have to take in mind that the central piece is the private sector. Inclusion here for promoting the SDGs. Right now, UNTAD, a couple of years ago, had identified that the necessities of the countries exceeds $4 trillion to achieve in 2030 all the goals. on the systems of the ESGs. So we need to focus on leveraging resources, domestic, foreign, and especially private, to reach this goal. Assets under management worldwide scale up for more than 120 trillion. This is a 2024 indicator. The big question is, How can a significant portion of this capital be channeled into investments with impacts in development to promote the SDGs? I think we have at least three pillars to deal, to build up this situation. First of all, already mentioned by previous colleagues, make a huge effort on de-risking business affairs. This can be done, of course, with traditional instruments, and I call guarantees already traditional butter and bread instrument. But of course, it's not sufficient to stop here, although guarantees can leverage in 10 times each dollar that it's applied. But of course, we have to go beyond this. We have to take the opportunity to bring up our best minds in finance that were able to design very smart instruments during the first decade of this century that didn't end well but They really have a lot of opportunities to redesign financial instruments in here. I talk about introducing financial innovations, not only for the risk, but to access credit in order to promote financing for all the necessities that we have. So the risk in financial innovation, third, build up and already mentioned, build up a business environment that is favorable for this triptych. Government foreign aid to leverage private sector. CAF in the last four years have been doing a tremendous effort on that. We were able to have in 2022 a general capital increase that was very substantial for our standards. It was $7 billion committed from our member countries to focus on green and blue economy, energy transition and leverage private sector operations, go through subnational governments and promote regional integration among Latin America and the Caribbean. We are quite engaged in this effort and it's honor here to mediate a discussion that can bring light not only for all the participants here, but especially for us in CAF to have new ideas. Having said that, let's go to the discussion. I will start with Mrs. Netlayani from Lesotho. and saying that Lesotho, like many developing countries, faces a common paradox, a abundance of social and climate needs with scarcity of private investment to meet them. My question, Mrs. Metlayani, from your experience in Lesotho, what regulatory policy reforms have you identified as priority to turn sectors into high social impact in terms of infrastructure, energy, and to attract opportunities for private investment. Please, Minister, the floor is yours.

Thank you. Thank you very much, moderator. Again, thank you to the co-chairs and a very warm welcome and greetings to fellow panelists. discussions and participants. Honorable moderator, let me start by saying that to the question that you are putting to me, I wish to make my submission towards it through a narrative of the broader development goals as well as broader perspective of developing countries in general. and the context of my own country, Lesotho, in particular, which I believe provides living examples of the subject that you want me to address. Let me start by saying that indeed, Lesotho, like many developing countries, faces a myriad of challenges, including climate vulnerabilities, affecting energy and food systems, we are facing severe droughts, severe floods and early frosts that come in frequently this year. They affect our food systems in terms of agricultural productivity, food security and the livelihoods of our people. As we do this, as we experience this, we recognize there are challenges in the global systems, including the shaping of reforms that may unlock concessional financing, the debt relief mechanisms that do not work for developing countries, and innovative financial instruments that are needed to unlock financing to close the gaps for financing these developmental goals. Lesotho faces significant financing constraints like many developing countries. We are in a process to look for financing to meet our sustainable development goal commitments. Public finances and resources alone are insufficient and private financing must be mobilized at scale. The severe outcome rightly identifies strengthening domestic capital markets and enabling inclusive environments as key levers and of course partnerships with the private sector to unlock financing. In this regard, as we look into development, it is essential that we look at development as a global public good. It is the responsibility for all of us, public and private sector, and all stakeholders to take part in the efforts to develop our countries and save our populations. And in that, we look into developmental goals being achieved through partnerships with the private sector, the public sector focusing on policy, and the private sector helping to scale up the public financing that is available. We look into reforms in the financial architecture to service all and to be of service to all, developed as well as developing countries. We look into multilateralism as the key in all its forms. for countries to partner and for institutions to work together. So priority actions from the severe commitments for a country such as Lesotho are the following. We're looking into strengthening domestic financial markets. Lesotho is pursuing reforms in capital market development, including regulatory upgrades and digital financial institution initiatives. Of course, as a developing country, one of the important things is support for medium and small businesses. Our private sector is largely informal and MSME-driven. So we're working to build inclusive access to finance with a focus on women and youth-led enterprises. We cannot leave behind blended finance and risk mitigation. Lesotho is actively engaging with development finance institutions and development partners to crowd in private capital, especially in sectors such as energy, in agriculture, in infrastructure, in health, in education, using guarantee mechanisms and leveraging on concessional windows where we can. In terms of policy actions, we are working strongly on structural reforms and policy certainty. Private sector leverages on certainty in public policy. We are improving our investment climate, streamlining business registration, enhancing investor protection laws and providing predictability in our policy frameworks. In terms of financial reform, financial reform is imperative. We in Lesotho have established instruments such as the public-private partnership framework to attract private investment in public infrastructure, especially in renewable energy and water. In green and inclusive investments, we are redesigning our tax incentives and other incentives and risk sharing tools for green investments to attract investments in this sector. Fiscal policies are being aligned with our national determined contributions to promote climate smart agriculture and renewable energy. Regulatory reforms allowing for easing private investment, including fiscal incentives, underway and we have introduced a number of incentives and subsidy schemes that encourage private sector and private players into the energy sector. This includes off-grid space to cater for accelerating access to rural communities and furthermore our regulations have liberalized private investments in power transmission networks including cross-border power trade to the neighboring states directly or through the Southern African Power Pool. I wish to highlight that Lesotho is accelerating investments in the Just Energy Transition Fund that is led by His Majesty King Letsie III, which is focusing on this private sector led investment to be crowded into this space. As a member of the Southern African Customs Union and SADC, we seek to tap into regional capital pools and harmonize frameworks to risk investments. And Lesotho is expanding efforts to engage diaspora investors and impact funds through digital platforms, roadshows and conferences like this one. We believe As I said, development is for all and development must be pursued by all. We believe if we join hands with the private sector and look innovatively into developing instruments that cater for the needs of developing countries, developing countries will be included and will not be left behind together with their populations in the quest for global development. I thank you.

Thank you very much, distinguished minister. Now, I will turn to Mr. Mulambo Haimi, Minister of Foreign Affairs, International Cooperation for Zambia. Mr. Minister, Zambia has pioneered the use of innovative financing, including green debt instruments and development-oriented restructuring processes. In your vision, How do you access the ability of innovative finance mechanisms such as this sustainable bonds and therefore nature's craft to attract private investment aligned to DES DG goals in Africa? Please, the floor is yours. Five minutes.

Thank you very much and I'll try to be as brief as possible. Co-chairs, your excellencies, distinguished panelists, and ladies and gentlemen, let me begin by expressing my appreciation at the opportunity to speak on this crucial subject. From a Zambia perspective, in terms of the question that you have asked, we have set certain priorities and much like Lesotho, For instance, we are looking to strengthen domestic financial and capital markets. So we take cognisance of the fact that we need to build robust and inclusive domestic capital markets that can mobilize long-term savings and channel them into productive sectors such as energy, agriculture, infrastructure, and digital innovation. So Zambia is reforming its financial architecture to strengthen domestic bond markets, expand digital financial inclusion, and broaden access to finance for MSMEs, especially those led by women and young people. These energies, these are engines, really, beg pardon, of our economy, and they remain largely underserved. So at the same time, we as Zambia call on development partners and multilateral development banks to invest in capacity building, in de-risking tools and local currency solutions that can help anchor domestic private capital flows to national priorities. Second, we are reimagining and scaling blended finance. Blended finance must move from pilots to systemic practice, ensuring that it is country-owned, impact-driven, and risk-aligned. In too many cases, the risk adjusted returns for investors are still not compatible with the needs of our people. We need innovative financial structures, first lost capital, guarantee platforms and concessional layers to unlock investment in sectors like climate adaptation, rural infrastructure and affordable housing. Chair, co-chairs, The global financial system must recognize the value of sustainable investment in developing countries. This includes fair risk assessment, credit enhancement mechanisms, and the appropriate pricing of risk, especially for LDCs and LLDCs. Maybe as I wind up my short intervention, I'd like to further state that Zambia is actively creating an enabling environment by reforming regulatory frameworks, improving macroeconomic stability, and supporting strategic sectors such as energy, where we are targeting over 3,000 megawatts in new renewable energy generation. And of course, agriculture, where we are partnering with private investors to build resilient food systems. But of course, we cannot do it alone. We need partnerships that are just, mutually beneficial, and grounded in the SDGs. We need a new development compact between governments, private sector, and global finance. and one that ensures the private sector becomes a fuller partner in our journey to dignity, prosperity and sustainability. I thank you so very much, co-chairs, Your Excellencies.

Thank you very much, Mr. Minister. Now we turn to the Minister of Finance of the Kingdom of Eswatini, Neo Riktimber. Very straightforward question, Mr. Minister. How is the OATNI building the strategy to engage with private sector in the provision of essential infrastructure, green infrastructure and services that is hardly needed in the country? The floor is yours.

Thank you, moderator. Thank you to the co-chairs. Right, so we, at the moment, supporting private sector development, that definitely involves creating and enabling environment through policy reforms, infrastructure development and access to finance, while also fostering entrepreneurship and business linkages. This includes strengthening market functioning and promoting access to finance and encouraging the private sector partnership and public sector or PPPs in that case, public private partnerships. So, but what I'll do is, if you don't mind, moderator, I'll give a little bit of a story about Eswatini and about, you know, what we've done in this space. We do definitely believe in, first of all, Eswatini is a low middle income country, but some of our dynamics mirror developing countries. So we have a high unemployment rate and a high poverty rate in Eswatini. And so, and a bit of our story on how to, and the bottom line is fixing the base rather than trying to do patches on the base. In 2018, we had a good sober look at our country and looked at our dynamics, and we found that we had been in about a 20-year 2% growth place and with a fiscal deficit of 7.5%. We decided to take a very aggressive view at this, work closely with IMF and even the World Bank on a medium-term fiscal framework to take our fiscal deficit from 7.5% down to 2%, which was very aggressive, very difficult to do. So over the next three years, two main budget cycles, but three years, we actually reduced expenditure, regardless of inflation, actually took expenditure down in Eswatini, and we worked very hard to increase revenues, and a lot of grace and support involved, we managed to get our fiscal deficit down to 2%. What we then found was that because of the private sector seeing that, the private sector stood up to the plate. And we found in 2023, our growth was 5%, 2024 growth 4.8%, and 2025, it is now looking at 7.9%, are the current numbers. So definitely on a very positive trajectory from, we believe, doing the right fiscal thing. A lot of other things we did as well, but one of the main things was getting the fiscal deficit down and for us to get ourselves onto a sustainable path. And when we analyzed that, we found that it was the private sector, obviously, that really came to the party. And with the confidence in government doing the right thing from a sustainability point of view, we found that it wasn't that much FDI. There's a certain amount of FDI, but it's mainly the bigger companies in the country that went through aggressive growth that took place in Eswatini and helped us to get to the higher numbers. And at the moment, we believe it's going to continue to go in the right direction. And I think that what we then found, you know, is obviously now in 2023, we could now increase expenditure. So since 2023, we've had a double digit growth in expenditure since then, again, helping us with the growth trajectory, but managed to keep our debt to GDP ratio at 40%. So we were, fortunately, we weren't in too bad a situation to start with. And now in a sustainable path, maintaining 40%, the growth now allowing us to take on more debt and the growth allowing us to do all sorts of things, broaden the tax base, also stuff within our country to be able to make sure that we maintain that path. Last year got a Moody's upgrade, as you can imagine with this kind of performance or this kind of things that we're doing, still low but going from B3 to B2, but really wanting to emphasize that in developing countries, there's almost nothing more important than growth. And so it doesn't matter what you're getting right, if you don't get growth right, you really are moving the deck chairs on the Titanic, and you really are not moving in the right direction. And it's almost like in a bullfight. If you don't remember whatever else you're trying to do to the bull in that bull ring, you've got to make sure the bull doesn't get you, first of all, before you do anything else. And unless we get growth right in our developing countries, whatever else we're getting right, SDGs included, we really are, it's unsustainable. You're not going to get that right. So, and again, growth is dependent on crowding the private sector because if you look at what you're talking about here, if we say we're going to be able to fund ourselves out of this, one can't fund yourself out of this. The MDBs, we're talking of SDGs needing trillions of US dollars. Probably our biggest bank, the World Bank's IBRD fund is 330 billion US dollars. So what I'm saying is, and we need trillions, we have to bring in the private sector. And until the private sector feels and feels comfortable with our macro fiscals, we're just not going to be able to move that needle. And so, Eswatini, what advice we can also give, and there's a lot of our governments, even developing countries have big assets sitting, lying idle as governments. So in Eswatini, we're starting a sovereign wealth fund and just putting, and we don't have the cash to inject it, but we do have a lot of assets that we're going to inject into our sovereign wealth fund and be able to use the sovereign wealth fund then quite strategically to Unlock, uh, co-investors into the country, try and use it as venture capital, kind of point of the spear to try and make sure we crowd in with our, with our government assets, liquidate, do whatever the sovereign wealth fund needs to do with it, at the same time, uh, really make sure that we, we try and develop that, uh, sector. Broadly a tax base in Eswatini ever since we now, since 2023, and we haven't increased taxes, but managed to broaden the tax base with more than a percent to GDP every year since then. This year going from 15 to 16 percent. We're still in the low categories, but it's very difficult to increase taxes when you don't have growth again. Trying to increase tax where there's no growth is very brutal on an economy. But you do find when you have the growth, broadly a tax base is a lot easier. So ultimately, the little bit of advice from Eswatini is what we found in our small space. is to lead with sustainability. Thank you.

Thank you very much, Minister. Now, I'll turn to Mr. Boris Titov, Special Representative for the President of Russian Federation. Mr. Boris, in the ongoing global situation, resource mobilization and keeping channels of multilateral cooperation and development is a primary task. Russia is a big player on these issues. From your position as an articulator with international organizations, how do you view a realistic roadmap for countries like Russia to contribute in a partnership with the private sector on financial global public goods and food security, for example? Thank you very much.

Thank you, Antonio. Co-chairs, I'll try to answer your question by providing information about briefly about two key areas where digital technologies help enhance the role of the private sector in sustainable development. And this what we could share with the whole world and can be the links with our partners in different countries. First, stimulating private ESG investment. Private sector financing of the SDGs remains limited. Sustainable funds account for only 5% of global investment assets and sustainable bonds represents just 6% of the global debt market. This must change. Russia has developed a practical approach, so-called public business capital ESG standard. It automatically collects data in real time online from government sources across 74 out of 82 indicators covering over seven million companies. Compliant companies gain access to state support, including preferential procurement, subsidies, concessional financing, and other stimulation instruments. The system aligns international ESG standards like GRI, ICCB, SACB with national development goals, making it adaptable to local context. We believe this automated incentive-based ESG model can benefit other countries and Russia is open to share it. Strengthening MSME capacity is the second project which we handle now. MSME are vital for jobs, investment and tax revenue yet often overlooked. Effective MSMEs policy must be based on partnership. The state provides profitable and easy to use digital tools, while business will operate legally and pay taxes. In Russia, we tackled informality using digital super services, so-called digital platforms, we call them super services. that integrate business registration, banking, credit access, and fiscal reforming. Results, plus 700,000 newly registered MSMEs, one and a half growth in average revenue per company in only one year, 2.8 growth in small and medium businesses with active loans which have is very important for Finance result for the budget tax revenue from small and medium businesses nearly doubled we talk about Russian economy the revenues from smes doubled only it was a uh plus $119 billion so you understand what is the financing now of the Russian government we share this technology with other countries. In Kyrgyzstan it also gave a result of about doubling the incomes of the Kyrgyzstan budget. So we may share it with other countries. So many member states in this room, we can probably propose it to Lesotho, maybe to Zambia. You said that mostly your SMEs are informal sector. Zambia, maybe in such a developed country as Swatini. So this is what we can share with other countries and this is our effort. But one more question I will touch and it's very important for us. Financing development beyond 2030. Bridging the 4 trillion SDGs financing gap is very urgent, but current trends make achieving these goals by 2030 uncertain. We propose designing a realistic post-2030 agenda, designing it already, starting designing it already now. This means focusing less on ideas of an ideal world and more on a few but the most important key global challenges that require collective action. New targets should be implemented through concrete programs with clear KPIs, effective governance, pre-agreed resources including financing. And this work is on the way on international level. The so-called XDGs, X means development goals for the future, which we don't know yet. Initiative, this initiative is being worked out by very efficiently and very active by United Arab Emirates and has brought together experts from over 40 countries. They wish, they United Arab Emirates together with Russia, Indonesia and other BRICS partners will hold a special session during the UN high-level political forum this July. We invite governments, businesses, civil society, experts to join this very important, as we think, job. Thank you for your attention. Thank you.

Thank you very much. And now we will turn to the lead discussants for the session for their interventions, three minutes each. I turn the floor to Mrs. Mary Beth Goodman, Deputy Secretary General, OECD. The floor is yours.

It is a pleasure to be here with you today to discuss one of the truly defining challenges of our time. How do we unlock the full potential of private finance to meet the scale and the urgency of today's sustainable development, climate and biodiversity goals? We all know that reigniting global progress from reducing poverty to tackling climate change and protecting nature requires urgent system-wide action. And we know that the emerging markets and developing countries must be at the heart of that response. The scale of the investment needed is massive, and public funds alone won't get us there. Mobilizing private capital is essential, yet despite growing investor interest, we remain far from the scale required. To make progress, we need decisive action in three interconnected areas. First, building trust through transparency. Investors shy away from the EMDEs partly because the data isn't giving them the full picture. There's a gap on investment risk, returns, and actual performance. And while development finance is mobilizing private capital, the data isn't always disclosed at the transaction level. This lack of granularity inflates the perceived risk and it undermines policymaking. So let's work to close the data gap and use the new collective quantifying goal on climate finance as an opportunity to improve the availability and transparency of the climate finance data. Second, putting private finance mobilization at the core of development finance, blended finance results have been mixed. Some instruments, like the guarantees, have been very effective in mobilizing private finance, but overall, the numbers have not lived up to expectations. In 2023, less than one fifth of development finance interventions had private finance mobilization at the core, and only 70% of private finance was mobilized. This is tiny compared to the annual investment needs. Third, let's tackle policy and regulatory barriers. EMDVs face real and perceived investment risk from shallow capital to non-transparent bureaucratic policy environment for investment. This requires technical assistance from the international organizations, the MDBs and donors to help financial authorities build capacity and strengthen local green financial markets. But constraints also come from advanced economies. through financial regulation that could unintentionally constrain investment in capital intensive projects in the MDBs. We need coordinated reform at home and internationally to unlock the scale of capital required with the active involvement and cooperation of MDBs and donors. At the OECD, we're very proud to help in this endeavor. Our job is to make sure more of it flows, more of this money flows. It is out there, but we need to get it where it's needed most. Thank you very much.

Thank you very much, Ms. Goodman. Now we'll turn to Mr. Eric Palosky, Vice President, Rockefeller Foundation.

Thank you, Antonio. Thank you, co-chairs, and thank you to all of the governments and non-governmental representatives present today. The Seville commitment offers a strong framework for sustainable development and, if implemented, will help advance the economic future of many developing countries around the world. That doesn't change the fact that investors have basic needs when making investments, particularly in countries where the need is greatest. It's about It's about creating the right conditions so private capital can flow at scale. First, strengthening domestic financial and capital markets is critical. A robust local financial system is the foundation for attracting both domestic and international investment. Without strong banks and functioning capital markets and supportive regulatory frameworks, even the most promising projects can struggle to secure financing. At the Rockefeller Foundation, we emphasize building these foundational capabilities that means supporting, uh, efforts for financial inclusion, regulatory oversight, and financial instruments. For instance, through YieldWise, the initiative in East Africa, smallholder farmers, many of whom are women, have gained better access to affordable financing through a partnership between local banks and fintech companies to develop tailored loan products and credit scoring models. Second, Creating enabling environments with clear, stable policies and incentives is required for sustainable investment. Investors need predictability, consistency and transparency. This means clear policies, not only on financial regulations, but also on environmental and governance standards and fair competition. A great example of this is in the work of the Global Energy Alliance for People and Planet on the World Bank and AFD's Mission 300, whereby improving local skills and capacity and implementation efforts is supporting African governments, institutional partners, and businesses with new financial tools and bankable projects. At the same time, the energy compacts that are at the heart of Mission 300 include concrete reform commitments by African governments to connect more people to electricity, keep costs down, and boost reliability. Third, scaling up resources available for public partnerships is vital to driving impact. The SDG investment gap is enormous, and the debt burdens faced by some developing countries is very steep. As we know from UNCTAD, today, 3.4 billion people live in countries that spend more on interest than on health and education. At Rockefeller, we use philanthropic risk capital and risk diplomacy to pilot innovative instruments, spur investor confidence, build like-minded coalitions, and expand resources and MDBs. As a result, this helps build confidence among investors. One great example is the Emerging Markets Transition Debt Facility. Under this initiative, institutional investors, the holy grail of private money, have committed to invest $400 million in the energy transition in emerging markets. To effectively crowd in private resources, mechanisms like blended finance, risk-sharing instruments, and climate risk insurance are necessary. Furthermore, the MDBs are key players in driving sustainable development outcomes. There are new and expanding opportunities for the private sector to partner with them to promote investments. On that note, the Rockefeller Foundation has supported a very central effort to reform the capital adequacy frameworks that determine how much leverage the banks can use out of their existing funds. This effort has added considerable funding to the global MDB system. Recently, in the face of tremendous ODA cuts, we proposed a modest but impactful adjustment to the World Bank's equity to loan ratio, reducing it by just one percentage point. This change could unlock an additional 30 to 40 billion in lending capacity, enabling the bank to deploy more funds towards sustainable development without increasing risk to taxpayer taxpayers or shareholders. Together, by employing these public, private and philanthropic resources more effectively, we can close the investment gap, revive sustainable development and ensure that no one is left behind. Many thanks.

Thank you very much, Mr. Palosky. Now I turn back to the co-chairs. Christopher Muhammad, please.

I would like to thank Mr. Silveira for expertly guiding the discussion. I also thank our distinguished panelists and discussants for their substantive contributions. Excellencies, distinguished delegates, we will now listen to interventions from the participants in the roundtable. In order to maximize the time available to us and allow as many participants as possible to take the floor, I would urge all speakers to kindly observe the time limit of three minutes for interventions. To assist speakers in this regard, a timer has been installed. When the clock signifies that the three minutes have been exhausted, speakers are kindly requested to conclude their statements. In accordance with the agreed modalities, The microphone will be deactivated 30 seconds after the allotted time has elapsed. I apologize in advance if speakers are cut off. As delegations have been informed due to high interest in the roundtable, we unfortunately have to resort to these measures to hear from as many speakers as possible in the limited time available. Thank you in advance for your understanding. In adhering to the time limit of three minutes, I would like to appeal to speakers to deliver their statements at a normal speed. so that interpretation may be provided properly. Delegations wishing to make interventions and who have not previously indicated their intention to do so are kindly requested to approach the Secretariat in the room. Having said that, I now open the floor for interventions in the roundtable. We will start with Mozambique.

Your Excellency, Mr. President, distinguished heads of states and governments, honorable ministers and representatives of international organizations, distinguished participants, ladies and gentlemen, It is with great sense of opportunity that we participate in this roundtable whose theme, leveraging business and private finance, is of paramount importance and deeply resonates with Mozambique's development priorities. We wish to congratulate Your Excellency, Mr. President, on your election and express our gratitude for the honor of being able to share our perspective and vision in this August forum. Distinguished participants, Mozambique's development journey, similar to that of many developing nations, is ambitious and full of potential. However, it also faces significant structural challenges. Our national agenda aims at economic transformation, poverty reduction, the creation of decent jobs, and construction of resilient infrastructure, especially for the youth. All of these align with the sustainable development goals. It goes without saying that public finance alone cannot fill the vast gap investment needed to achieve these goals. This is where private sector comes in, not only as a compliment but as a strategic imperative. We do recognize that the private sector is the engine of innovation and growth and creation of value. For us in Mozambique, leveraging companies and private investment is not an option but an essential condition to drive our development in an accelerated and sustainable manner. That's why we believe the private financing must seek to establish appropriate and targeted solution among others in order to stimulate and develop entrepreneurship innovation, internationalize and move companies. The African free trade area, for instance, with is just an example with 1.4 billion consumers which will allow a substantial increase in infrastructure in intra-African trade by 2045. That's why for us it is important to strengthen governance and transparency, reform the regulatory and legal framework, promote of local content. I thank you all.

Thank you very much. I would now like to turn to Her Excellency Gordana Dimitrievska Kochovska, Minister of Finance of North Macedonia.

Excellencies, distinguished delegates, esteemed colleagues. It's a great honor to address this distinguished gathering today. We are united by a shared purpose to accelerate sustainable development through innovative financing. I'm here to share our country's experience in leveraging blended finance and strategic partnership to address two of the most urgent challenges of our time, air pollution and climate change. In response to these challenges, our country has launched the Green Finance Facility, or GFF, an innovative financing mechanism designed to unlock affordable green finance for small and medium-sized enterprises and underserved households. The GFF is more than a financial tool. It's a catalyst for transformation, empowering businesses and communities to invest in renewable energy and energy efficiency solutions that reduce emissions, lower energy costs, and improve public health. At the heart of the GFF lies a blended finance model. By combining public and private capital, technical assistance and performance-based incentives, we have created a structure that mitigates risk, attracts private investments and ensures that no one is left behind in the green transition. This model enables us to direct capital where it is most needed towards climate smart investments that are inclusive, impactful and scalable. The success of the GFF is built on strong and diverse partnership. We are proud to collaborate with the United Nations, Joint SDG Fund, UNDP, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, and a network of local financial institutions, including five banks and one leasing company. Together with the government, these partners bring not only financial resources, but also technical expertise, policy coherence, and a shared commitment to sustainable development. The GFF is structured around two core components. The first supports in adopting renewable energy and energy efficiency technologies. The second targets underserved households, including Roma families, female-headed households, single parents, persons with disabilities, and returns from abroad, ensuring that the green transition is just and equitable. The mentioned projects are estimated to deliver annual energy savings, avoid emissions and new renewable capacity. These investments have also led to measurable reduction in fine particle pollution, PM2.5 and PM10, contributing to cleaner air and healthier communities. The Green Finance Facility demonstrates that blended finance, when paired with inclusive design and strong partnership, can deliver tangible environmental, social, and economic benefits. In closing, I reaffirm our country's solid and steady commitment to the 2030 Agenda and the Paris Agreement. Let us continue to work together to build a greener, fairer, and more resilient world for current and future generations. Thank you.

Thank you very much. I would now like to turn to His Excellency Goran Gajdek Radman, Minister of Foreign and European Affairs of Croatia.

Dear Excellencies, dear colleagues, distinguished guests, I am pleased to be here today to add a creative perspective to this important and timely discussion. To meet the sustainable development goals, we need the private sector not just as a source of funding, but as a partner in building more resilient societies. In Croatia, we have seen the value of private investment in areas like energy infrastructure, tourism and technology. We have also learned how important it is to create a stable business environment and build trust between government and investors. But more can be done. We must work to better connect private capital with public needs, for example in clean energy, digital transformation and education. We need to support small and medium-sized enterprises, especially those led by women and young people. And we must make sure that investments are responsible, that they respect people, the environment and the rule of law. Regarding the reform of global financial architecture, the emphasis should be on the importance of lowering the cost of capital and exploring new collective instruments to finance sustainable development. Croatia is also an active member state of the European Union, which today we are celebrating just 12 years of our accession, which promotes sustainable finance and partnership through instruments like Global Gateway and InvestEU. We believe these models can help other countries as well, especially in regions that need more private investment for development. Ladies and gentlemen, the private sector is not separate from development, it is part of it. At a time of growing complexity and volatility in the global arena, it is critical that we continue a transparent dialogue and joint initiatives with private and public finances. I'd like to draw your attention to the document prepared by finance in common unlocking the potential of public banks for sustainable development, which is an excellent contribution to our discussion. This document has been facilitated with great support from the International Development Finance Club, of which the creation bank for reconstruction and development, a bank from my country Croatia is also a member. Thank you.

Thank you very much. I would now like to turn to His Excellency Matia Kasaija, Minister of Finance, Planning and Economic Development of Uganda.

Your Excellencies, distinguished participants, Uganda recognizes that the financing gap is huge and official development assistance will never be enough to close the deficit. We therefore propose that part of the development finance from financial institutions and development financial institutions should be utilized to leverage private capital by risking private sources of finance. Innovative financing sources such as debt swaps for nature, green bonds, sukuk bonds, PPPs, crowdfunding, etc. offer opportunities to supplement traditional financing sources. However, capacities need to be enhanced to quickly come up with effective delivery frameworks that provide quick and sustainable financing without constraining conditions. We need capacity and financial support to access innovative sources of development finance such as diaspora bonds, infrastructure bonds, municipal bonds, Islamic finance, green bonds to diversify development finance as well as non-public debt financing solutions and leverage private equity, especially.

For the infrastructure development.

The cost of accessing non-concessional financing and private equity is very high. For example, in PPP structures, all the risks are on the government, while all the benefits go to other parties. We need frameworks that balance risk sharing and minimize these costs to governments. We support the need to develop an enabling policy environment which facilitates private investment in agriculture and food systems and renewed global framework for improved access to additional and innovative financial resources to close the growing financing gap in infrastructure, in agriculture and other areas. We support the renewed focus on micro, small and medium enterprises and support to cooperatives to increase productivity, resilience and sustainable growth through automation, access to affordable finance and securities development. Thank you.

Thank you very much. I would now like to turn to Her Excellency Nadia Fattah, Minister of Economy and Finance of Morocco.

Thank you very much, Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen. In Morocco, we have a clear target to have private investment represent two-thirds of the investment of the country by 2035. So first, we are reforming and working constantly to keep the house in order, having a good trajectory of public finance and a good growth trajectory. We are easing the life of the private business by a modern regulatory framework, visibility and mid-term predictability on tax reform, good infrastructure, including ports, airports, green energy. and strong human capital. We also have very comprehensive business and economic strategies to allow integration in the global value chains from access to market to technology, human capital, and our success in automotive industry exporting 700,000 cars is a good example for this. To finance this, we have a strong financial market, not only banking sector, but also strong capital markets, crowdfunding, other solutions for SMEs, and also strong guarantee system and sovereign wealth fund. But challenges are remaining. We just issued in March euro bonds, $2 billion, without having investment grade. But we had a good price as a sovereign, I would say, bonds. But for private sector, not having the proper ratings, not having the proper risk assessment, don't allow the private sector locally or foreign investors to have access to the proper or the good pricing for the finance. We're talking also about blended finance. I won't repeat what my fellow colleagues have been saying, but we need also blended finance because to have investment at scale, we cannot have just financing project by project. For renewables in Morocco, all the production now is private. But governments still need to invest in green, in, I would say, technologies. So we need much more money, and you've been all speaking about this, but we need also this PPP strategy that we are all promoting to be also supported by blended finance. And finally, we have some private equity firm here. We're talking about MDBs, we're talking about concessional. But we need the real money to flow to Africa. We really have very, very small amount of this coming to us. Thank you so much.

I would like to now give the floor to International Chamber of Commerce.

Thank you for the opportunity to address you today. Can I be clear, the International Chamber of Commerce did not bring thousands of business people to this conference to listen to more pledges and listen to more declarations. We came here looking for, and we want, serious enabling action to allow the private sector to do its bit in order to enable finance for development. And that can only be done through genuine partnership and through creating, as the Minister just said, enabling environments. Friends, we are the institutional voice of more than 45 million businesses. We operate in more than 170 countries. 70% of the ICC is in developing and emerging economies. This is a real issue for the International Chamber of Commerce, and we are here to ensure that we do something about it. We like and we welcome the Compromiso de Sevilla. not because it solves everything, but because it contains proposals that if used effectively might just unlock real structural change. We want to do more, but let's be also clear, as the minister just said, the path to mobilizing trillions remains blocked by systemic issues. Let's take financial regulation. Under current Basel III framework, banks are disincentivized from financing development climate projects in emerging markets. even when backed by multilateral guarantees or long-term off-take agreements. This isn't just a theoretical issue, this is a real-time, real-world bottleneck. We have identified targeted adjustments that can be made to unlock up to four times more bank capital for sustainable investments without compromising stability. Second, we must work together to build functioning capital markets in developing economies. We need to be able to mobilise capital with legal certainty, institutional capacity and fair rules. Friends, we have the playbook. We want help to actually ensure that this is delivered. And in the context of declining aid budgets, we need governments to think strategically about how to enable these very local businesses, as the Russian delegate said, to become drivers of development. Redirecting development assistance, what that remains of development assistance, towards building private sector capacity, infrastructure and aid for trade is critical. But let's be clear, that's just the beginning. Two hidden barriers deserve urgent attention. The first is access to finance. Trade finance supports 80% of global trade, yet from 2011 to 2022, we have seen a 25% drop in correspondent banking relationships, up to 60% in Africa, up to 60% in the Caribbean. What's the result? SMEs are losing up to 40% of revenue within two years. We must fix this. We must restore the global correspondent banking network to 2011 levels. This will increase Money is available by up to $300 billion a year. And it starts with ensuring that the Financial Action Task Force, which is actually the introduction of which has actually led to this diminution because of risk and retrenchment, to be effectively operating. And that ensures that they understand the unintended consequences. The number is too big to ignore. And there has to be proportionate implementation of FATF standards to stop.

Before we listen to the next speaker, I think it's a quick reminder to representatives to kindly observe the stipulated time limit of three minutes so that we may listen to as many speakers as possible in the time available. I'd like to give the floor to Mr. Sigitas Smitkus, Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs of Lithuania.

Thank you, Chair. Dear Excellencies, Honorary Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen, the financial gap needed to fund the SDGs is huge. Everyone expects the private sector to invest and provide innovative solutions, which would be important drivers of sustainable development, economic growth, digital transition and job creation. From the government side, there is an urgent need for timely political, administrative and legal decisions to engage the private sector in the financial architecture of development at both the national and global levels. In Lithuania, we have decided to establish a coordination mechanism comprised of representatives from businesses, public institutions and financial institutions. On the basis of PPP principles, we have created green finance institutes. Lithuania was among the first countries in Europe that issued green bonds. And Can you hear me? Yes. Lithuania was among the first countries in Europe which issued green bonds and introduced bespoke regimes for crowdfunding in financial and energy sectors. This enhanced coordination mechanism provides us with the opportunity to, first, to identify the needs of the private sector, Second, to strengthen cross-sectoral links. In this respect, Lithuania is a country of advanced e-governance, digital finance and fintech benefits greatly from this institutional decisions. Public procurement is yet another theme to be explored when we are talking about redirecting public financial resources towards implementation of SDG objectives. Third, The enhanced coordination allows us to adjust existing financial instruments, such as export credits and export guarantees, and create new ones, such as sustainable bonds and green guarantees, mixed funds. It also enables us to employ risk sharing mechanisms to expand financial capacities and finance development cooperation initiatives. We do believe that these measures will improve the private sector's engagement in the financial architecture of development cooperation. Thank you.

Thank you. I give the floor to His Excellency Nestor Ntahangwe, Minister of Finance, Budget and Development Economy of Burundi.

Thank you. Thank you, Chairman. Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen, distinguished participants. Today, more than ever, it is widely recognized that leveraging the private sector is essential for achieving the SDGs. In this context, Burundi would like to share some elements for food for thought based on our experience and our priorities. The great involvement of private stakeholders in sustainable development requires a predictable and enabling and transparent environment. In this respect, sustained efforts are underway at the national level in order to strengthen our national public-private partnership framework and ensure access to financing for MSMEs and financial inclusion, including through the digitalization of services and enhancing access to loans for women and young persons. The implementation of mechanisms such as the single window guarantee fund for investors and other business-oriented incentives all contribute to creating a resilient and dynamic business environment. Particular attention is paid to women and young persons. There are banks that are dedicated specifically to these categories and also for those who are still in training. At the national level, we are working to strengthen risk sharing instruments as well as blended financing and the channeling of financial flows towards our SDG priorities. Burundi would like to underscore the importance of strength and governance for investment through transparent evaluation frameworks, especially as regards ESG, and also smooth cooperation between public and private stakeholders and our development partners. Burundi stands ready to work with all stakeholders in order to ensure that businesses and private financing become an effective lever for sustainable development that can bring about a transformative change for the better for our populations. Thank you.

Thank you. I give the floor to Ms. Diana Janse, State Secretary to Minister for International Development Cooperation and Foreign Trade of Sweden.

Excellencies, colleagues, we meet here in Seville to ensure that the development financing agenda is up to date and fit for purpose to, despite the storms around us, accelerate the implementation of the SDGs. And I'm pleased to see that the Seville commitment emphasised mobilising additional funding, both from the private sector and domestic resources. ODA, however important, will not, cannot and should not be the only solution. My government works to strengthen the synergies between development cooperation and trade promotion. By coordinating our efforts, ODA acts as a catalyst, mobilising additional private resources for sustainable development, digital and green transition. We know it can be done through innovative instruments and partnership. Sweden has successfully mobilized private capital for sustainable development for nearly 15 years through credit guarantees, we reduce financial risks for private investors and challenge funds to co-finance innovative solutions. These efforts have attracted significant private investments in sectors like infrastructure, environment, climate and gender equality, mobilizing over 3.5 billion USD by the end of 2024. However, investors remind us that for this approach to work with additional private funding, strong institutions, rule of law and anti-corruption measures are crucial. Corruption hinders development as do tax evasion, money laundering and organised crimes, with enormous sums lost to illicit financial flows. Ultimately, every government is responsible for their own development and for ensuring these fundamental conditions for investments and economic development. It is obvious and it has been said here on numerous occasions at the conference, private capital goes where opportunities grow. It is for countries to create these opportunities through reforms, bold reforms that we are willing to support. We hope that the Seville commitment will be a starting point for more actors to join in in this quest for additional

opportunities.

I thank you for your attention.

Thank you. I give the floor to His Excellency Sergio Armando Kusigianqui Loeza, Minister of Development Planning of the Plurinational State of Bolivia.

Thank you very much. Very good morning to you all. First of all, we would like to point out that the fight against poverty and inequality, these are issues that represent a convergence of countries. and we should join efforts. Improving the living conditions of our people requires huge financing. The efforts in the public sector in my country and in the vast majority of countries who are present here in this forum are significant but ultimately insufficient in light of the major social needs that exist in our countries. And this is where the governments of our countries face a number of contradictions. For example, one of these contradictions is having to choose between addressing the needs of the people, reducing the fiscal deficit, or as we said before, the disjunction between paying public debt or resolving people's problems by, for instance, increasing the availability of drinking water. Against this backdrop, it's important to think about the mobilization of resources, both public and private resources. And nevertheless, we must be cognizant of the fact that the mobilization of public resources will not reach all sectors and therefore will not resolve all of people's problems. And this is because the mobilization of public resources has behind it this presupposition that you are going to get a profit back from it. And in addition to mobilization of public resources, we should also therefore mobilize private resources and change the current international financial architecture It's fundamental that in addition to private resources, we are able to achieve this restructuring of the international financial architecture so that we can actually mobilize financial resources in a way that resolves people's problems. The decisions from here on in should not just be in the financial sector, but they should also cover the fact that we have a commitment, a duty to resolve people's problems in the future. Thank you.

Thank you very much. I now give the floor to Ms Heidi Rampot, Vice Minister for Development Cooperation and Humanitarian Affairs of Belgium.

Thank you very much. Excellencies and distinguished colleagues. At a time of growing global uncertainty, from climate disruption to rising inequalities, and from health crises to economic fragility, our response must be rooted in high-quality, mutual, beneficial partnerships. We must invest in our common future, in those global public goods we all depend on: climate, health and stability. And so this forum and this session is really important to us to really see how to better leverage private finance and business for sustainable development. The Compromiso de Sevilla, which was adopted, offers a timely and ambitious roadmap. Three elements that I want to underscore from our perspective.

First of all, we believe that

Mobilising private finance and business must be rooted in capital and national priorities and needs. National leadership and ownership is critical in mobilising private finance for sustainable development. Therefore, we plead for strong coordination and leadership at national level with specific attention for the local private sector. Second, There are indeed increasingly financial tools available, and they all must be used wisely. Not only do they need to support national priorities, but we also need to understand how they are used so that they will not come at distorting markets. We need to place the cursor right between the continuum of, on the one hand, being less risk averse with our instruments and with, for example, our MDBs, but on the other hand, also capturing risks and de-risking. And getting that cursor right on that continuum is critical to understand where we rightly will mobilise private capital. And finally, ultimately, Prosperity is about people. And so we therefore also plead for a human-centered private business and finance approach. We have good examples, for example, in health, where indeed we bring together technology, vaccine production, transfer of technology, skills development, so that we can build to be stronger together for future pandemics. Thank you very much.

Thank you to the representative of Belgium. I now give the floor to the distinguished representative for the International Fund for Agricultural Development.

Thank you so much, Mr Chair. I wholeheartedly welcome the emphasis that the Compromisso de Sevilha puts on the role that private investment plays in enhancing rural economies. Investing in rural areas is critical to provide opportunities to the world's poorest, stabilizing the food supply, the global food supply, and expanding economic opportunities for all. The private sector is by far the largest player in food system, and aiming for transformation without it has low chances of success. The private sector provides skills, knowledge, and innovation that can help farmers escape poverty, and that they are not necessarily provided by governments. Let me take the example of digital information solutions. Agri-SMEs are the engine of inclusive growth, engaging millions of rural people in productive employment and strengthening food system from the ground up is imperative. And we need to create rural jobs. We need to tackle migration, but we can't tackle migration if we don't provide in the rural space millions of opportunities for young people. We need to make private capital work for rural development, but how do we do it? And what has not worked so far in the last decade? We need appropriate size of bankable projects and scalable. We need tailored technical assistance and we need to address country and sectoral risks, which translated into higher prices by developing risk sharing and blended finance instrument. And if it, we are committed to do this. We are developing a new work stream. We are getting ready to become a critical partner for the private sector. And we aim to strengthen inclusive and sustainable private sector ecosystem, particularly rural micro, small and medium-sized enterprises. But we need partners and we need partnerships with both public sectors, governments and the private sector. Thank you so much.

I thank the representative of IFAD. I now give the floor to Mr. Hussein Husainov, Head of the Sustainable Development and Social Policy Department of the Ministry of Economy and Secretary of the National Coordination Council for Sustainable Development of Azerbaijan.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Sufficient financing remains a critical challenge for progress towards the 2030 Agenda. It's estimated that investment requirement to achieve SDGs still increased by 2.5 trillion per year during the period of time 2015 and 30. To bridge potential financial gaps in funding SDGs, Azerbaijan has utilized integrated national financial framework, INFF, and SDG investor map relying on domestic resources. Embracing SDG investing as a mechanism for driving positive social and environmental change, we are proud to announce that 82% of our consolidated budget expenditure align with national SDG goals and targets, which constitutes almost 25% of GDP. In our recently submitted fourth voluntary national review, we outline comprehensive measures implemented by the government of Azerbaijan. close to SDG financial gap. In 2025 publication of the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs dedicated to the preparation of VNRs, the innovative approach implemented by our country in financing implementation of SDG have been positively evaluated and recommended to other member states. Dear forum participants, it's worth to note that effective institutional settings relating to PPP projects are also crucial for financing development projects. In order to ease the financial burden on state-owned infrastructure projects, as well as accelerate the attraction of strategic foreign investment to the country, public-private partnership regulations based on best practices were developed and adopted last year according with law on public private partnership. Ladies and gentlemen, as you have heard, Azerbaijan successfully hosted COP29 in November 2024. The core of discussion was centered around establishing new collective quantified goals for climate finance, with the key outcomes being agreement of new financial goal to support developing countries in addressing climate change. The Baku Finance Goal emphasized the importance of both public and private finance in achieving overall targets. The Baku Finance Goal is a target at least 300 billion per year by 2035, tripling the previous 100 billion target. Ladies and gentlemen, in conclusion, I believe that the fourth International Conference on Finance Development offers a political platform to make adjustments needed to accelerate progress towards SDGs and driving ambitious reform, ensuring affordable long-term financing.

I thank you. I thank the distinguished representative of Azerbaijan. And now I'd like to give the floor to Her Excellency Fatima Haram Hasil, Minister in charge of the economy, planning and international cooperation of Chad.

Thank you very much, uh, Chairman, heads of state, heads of government and, uh, heads of delegations, distinguished participants. Chad is one of the least developed countries, but it has major potential for mobilizing the private sector because of its position in terms of geography and also because of its raw materials. In order to leverage that potential, our government has developed a national development plan that is bold for 2025 to 2030. It is called Chad Connection 2030. in which 46% of our projects are eligible for private sector financing. The government has also undertaken bold reforms through the digitalization of our tax services and the improvement of our business climate. We're talking about simplifying administrative procedures, regulatory stability, legal certainty, and tax institutions. We are developing a strategy to encourage small and medium-sized enterprises and startups and innovation hubs. We have a strategy for facilitating public-private partnerships in key sectors and for stimulating FDI. Chad is calling for just and equitable access to public financing and we are calling for stronger mechanisms for blended financing involving development banks and the private sector. We need to adapt our investment tools to the realities on the ground in the least developed countries and also shared risk taking and targeted initiatives as well as the increase in the levels of ODA which are channeled to the private sector locally. Thank you.

I would like to thank the Minister from Chad.

I would like to give the floor to His Excellency Abbas Qadam Obaid, Deputy Permanent Representative for Iraq, speaking on behalf of the Group of 77 and China.

Thank you, Mr. Co-Chair, Excellencies, distinguished delegates. I have the honor to deliver this intervention on behalf of the Group of 77 and China, the group not that in compression. to the Addis Ababa Action Agenda, the chapter on domestic and international private business and finance of the compromise of Desavie has concrete calls to action. In particular, in paragraph 33 AF, we see a clear goal of increasing foreign direct investment in developing countries to support national development priorities and the SDGs, including through targeted investment mechanism for SIDS, LDCs, LLDCs, and MICs, working with the institutional investors and the UN system, building human and institutional capacity to develop quality project, pipelines and technical assistance on private-public partnership for infrastructures and renewable energy. The challenge is for the private sector to heat this coal and truly increase their investment in developing countries at the needed skill and speed. The cost capital is much too high for developing countries reducing competitive needs and integration of MSMEs in regional and global value chains, addressing international systemic issues is a critical moving forward to give live these commitments. We need to reduce the risk perceptions of investing the global south by increasing the methodology of credit ratings agencies and looking at the impacts of financial regulatory frameworks on lending enterprises in developing countries. Investing in the developing of those most in need can produce long-term returns for the entire world community. We know that private sector resources are needed to help fill sustainable development finance gap, but they cannot replace the role of ODA. Therefore, the mobilization of private resources through blended financing hold potential to catalyze and crowd and more private resources for sustainable development. This mechanism must be country-driven and take into account national circumstances. We do not want standard and classifications that could unnecessarily burden developing countries. The role of MDBs and the provisions of guarantees and first lost capital is essential and must be scaled up. We want to see more long-term quality investment in the portfolio rather than one-off projects. This may inspire the private sector to also see themselves as stewards for sustainable development. The following up. of FFD4 should ensure that the volume of areas in which private finance contributions to the SDGs are in pursuit of the objectives of the Comprehensive Decade. We emphasize the positive contribution of migrants, sustainable development and importance of remittances and the need to further reduce their cost. In no way should remittances substitute ODA and FDI. Financial access and literacy is key. at the local, national and international levels to ensure no country, no one one is left behind. I thank you, Secretary.

I now give the floor to the distinguished representative from El Salvador, Miss Carla Majano de Palma, Director General of El Salvador's Agency for International Cooperation, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of El Salvador.

Excellencies, distinguished delegates, El Salvador has a major commitment to drive the sustainable development agenda and to catalyzing private sources to its transformative potential in a challenging context where achieving the global development agenda is facing major obstacles. leveraging and complementarity between other sources of financing is urgent. In this context, the contribution of the private sector is fundamental to complement national efforts at setting a goal towards sustainable development. El Salvador has made major progress in the area of secure citizenship, enabling a better environment for investment and business. And we feel that this approach should be part of the global discussion on financing for development. We recognize that without security and stability, the future is unsustainable. El Salvador will continue choosing this path. We have transferred and our services to generate new economic opportunities. And furthermore, we are developing regulatory frameworks that can facilitate private investment and support micro and small businesses and drive them towards productive sectors. Under the current president, Bukele, We are overcoming citizen insecurity and we've made a priority on economic growth and building a climate for trust for investment and ensuring action from the private sector. The regulatory framework and public policies have been focused on creating enabling conditions, enabling environment for productive sector, infrastructure, energy, tourism and others. We are strengthening support mechanism access to financing for SMEs, including those with potential for export. Digital inclusion has also been a cross-cutting priority, ensuring digitization of financial services, modern payment systems, and developing instruments to ensure banking for the population. These initiatives are also linked to promoting skills and greater transparency for the financial sector. Our relations with the private sector are, as a high point, private investment achieved a record of more than $6 billion in 2024 with growth of 7% and a business, a park with thousands of businesses. people are demanding greater flexibility to build their skills. Thank you.

Thank you. I give the floor to the distinguished representative of United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific.

Thank you, Mr. Chair, excellencies, distinguished participants. ESCAP has been deeply engaged in supporting the global financing for development process since the third international conference in Addis Ababa. Last December, we organized a high level consultation to gather perspective from Asia and the Pacific as regulations are essential to deploy increased private finance in support of the SDGs. Member states also consider that stronger regulatory framework, consistent policies and robust domestic financial systems along with fiscal incentives are critical to channel capital towards SDG aligned investment. In addition, MDBs and development financial institutions can become stronger catalysts for private capital, especially in supporting early stage investment and enhancing project pipeline bankability. Another priority is the enhancement of sustainability reporting and disclosure. They need to be enhanced to build trust and align private sector strategies with the SDGs. Capacity building and technical assistance are essential for policymakers and the private sector. And finally, for better aligned and more interoperable sustainable financial regulation and policies, it is important to ensure that investors face lower risk and lower costs. Going forward, ESCAP is committed to supporting the follow-up process of FFD4, including through regular regional reporting and progress, regional committees and consultation on progress and priorities as stated in the Compromisso de Sevilha. Thank you very much.

I give the floor to the distinguished representative from Namibia, Mr. Kari Mbunde, Director General of National Planning Commission of Namibia.

Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman, and distinguished delegates. Namibia has adopted an ambitious development agenda of transforming the country into a developed country by the year 2030. The road to reach that journey has not been easy. However, we were able to attain the level of a high middle income country. That state of high middle income country have certain implications in terms of the cost of capital, as well as the flow of ODA. And there is a need to reimagine how the ODA could be applied to promote private trade and investment. We have adopted broadly three strategies for mobilization of resources. We have decided to optimize resources, resource mobilization through economic transformation. Our analysis indicates that we lose about 15% of GDP through the current structure of the economy. We believe that the diversification of our economy can be done in partnership with the private sector. We're not only creating an enabling environment that is predictable and rule-based for direct investment, but we are also developing a policy framework for private-public partnership. We have developed capital markets and improved tax administration. We believe that there is a need for targeted instruments that should be designed to promote specific patterns of development. In our country, there is a high demand for investments in infrastructure, to respond to the new sectors of oil and gas. And core to this strategy also of developing infrastructure is regional cooperation with our next door neighbors, which is Angola, Zambia, and Botswana. We are in the process of constructing railways linking our three countries. and to facilitate export and import. Enlargement of our ports will require substantial investment, so are also the road infrastructures. We have committed ourselves to green energy transition, notwithstanding that our contribution.

Thank you. I would give the floor to the distinguished representative of Sintesah Group.

Thank you very much, Excellency, distinguished colleagues and partners. It is a privilege to address this forum today, not only as CEO of Synthensa Group, but also as co-chair of the GSD Alliance and FFD4 Business Steering Committee. I speak from the perspective of those who are creating jobs, building value chains and facing the complex reality of financial sustainable development on the ground. The FFD4 Business Communique that we have collectively put forward is more than a statement of intent. It is call to action anchored in pragmatism and built on the recognition that the private sector must be a co architect of sustainable Finance ecosystem from the vantage point of the real economy I would like to highlight five critical imperative that must guide our shared efforts first we must significantly scale up blended finance and Innovative financial instruments ensuring their design and deployments are genuinely aligned with the needs of the real sector we need more than conceptual innovation, we need investment platform and strategies that are accessible, especially for the small and medium enterprises, which is the backbone of many of the developing countries economy. Second, the private sector stand ready to co-invest, but meaningful partnership requires our engagement much earlier in the investment process. We are calling for the establishment and strengthening of country-led investment platforms that are anchored in national development strategies and inclusive of local business perspectives from the outside. Third, a conducive and forward-looking regulatory environment is essential. We strongly support the development of balanced, sustainable finance framework that avoid imposing undue compliance burdens on businesses in emerging markets. At the same time, we are calling for a targeted reassessment of certain financial regulation, including capital adequacy requirement, which currently disemphasize long-term investment. Fourth, inclusion must be at the heart of all financing strategies, despite the states of progress, access to finance remained far too limited for SME, women-led enterprises and informal sector actors. To bridge this gap, we need to significantly expand the use of de-risking tools, including guarantees, local currency financing mechanisms and political risk insurance, particularly in frontier markets. Finally, we are committed to ensuring that our contribution are measured not merely in terms of volume, but in real tangible income impact. The business community is ready to be held accountable to track, report and improve upon our contribution through transparent and outcome-based metrics. Beyond Seville, we stand ready to co-develop roadmaps with public institutions and other stakeholders, ensuring our commitment translates into lasting results. We must now move from isolated transaction to systemic scalable solution from high level declaration to ground level execution. The FFD for business communique represent our unified voice and our readiness to act. Let us now together move from vision to implementation with urgency, ambition and trust. Thank you.

I would now give the floor to the distinguished representative from Iceland, Ms. Thorarinna Sveinbjornsdottir, Deputy Director General for Development Cooperation.

Thank you, Chair. Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen, significant progress has been made in the compromise at the Seville with regard to leveraging private business and financial development cooperation, but more needs to be done. And in this regard, Iceland joined an initiative in the severe platform for action on this issue, on planted finance more specifically. But promoting policy frameworks that create an enabling environment for business is key to unlocking private sector investments. This involves many factors, a predictable regulatory environment that is attractive to investors, a robust system of domestic resource mobilization that instill trust and strengthen the social contract, Strong and credible anti-corruption measures and responsible debt management are just some important elements of this. We would also like to highlight that strengthening domestic finance sectors and capital markets is a crucial aspect of leveraging the private sector more broadly, and we welcome the constructive language on this issue. Ladies and gentlemen, It's vital that the creative potential of the entire population is leveraged to foster sustainable growth. Policies that enhance women's economic and political participation and leadership will be key to realizing economic gains. And this is where we are speaking from our own history and our own development experience. In this regard, we would also like to highlight an example from our own experience. Last year, Iceland became the first country in the world to issue a sovereign gender bond as a way to leverage capital market financing in Iceland for projects conducive to gender equality. And we are willing to share our experience for anyone interested. Thank you, Chair.

Thank you. I'd like to thank the delegate from Iceland. I'd now like to give the floor to Mr. Markus Reubi, delegate of the Federal Council for the 2030 Agenda from Switzerland.

Thank you, Chairman, Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen. In response to the widening financing gap and stalled private capital flows, the compromise of the Seville represents a timely and necessary step forward in strengthening the global development finance architecture. While strategically important, the Seville commitments must now be backed by action. With a shared ambition to match the scale of the financing challenge, let me highlight three critical aspects for Switzerland. One, business and investment climate and enabling environment. To mobilize capital investment in the long term, the most important action is to implement reforms to improve countries' business and investment climate and enabling environment. This will lead to better investor risk perceptions and better risk ratings, along with increasing international, regional, and global economic integration. Second, standardization and targeted use of blended finance. In the short and medium term, there is no need to strategically use public sector funding to de-risk in order to mobilize private investment and further standardize the most successful models that can ideally be placed in public markets. Furthermore, we need to mobilize domestic private finance, including through local currency guarantees. MDBs are best placed to do this job, we need to make sure we as shareholders set ambitious goals, including on risk tolerance and provide the right incentives for them to do so. Concessional funding from public donors and philanthropic foundation is critical as well. The Swiss SDG Impact Finance Initiative, SIFI, is an initial success story in this regard. I invite you to consider joining this initiative that pools public and philanthropic sources for blended financial solutions. Another area where concessional funding can add high impact additionally is impact linked finance. Third, innovation of standards and assessment tools for better investments, FTIQ. Switzerland has been part of the advisory group leading to the 2022 OECD recommendations on FDI qualities and sustainable development. We are co-financing the development of the FDI qualities indicators and public toolbox to assess foreign direct investments, which contributes to say sustainable development by using four key, five key areas. One, productivity and innovation. Two, employment and job quality. Three, skills. Four, gender equality. And five, carbon footprint. This solid analytical framework helps government to make better informed decisions in order to channel and align the kind of FDIs they need to meet their national priorities. The logic is simple. We need more, but we also need better investments. We are pleased to see its progressive uptake and to see partners building on this network. And since I have 10 seconds left, I would like to say we have a special event on July 3rd on this topic together with OECD and the African Union. Thank you very much.

Thank you. Thank the representative from Switzerland. I now give the floor to Ms. Imini Okari Director for Development and Finance from Finland.

Thank you, Chair and Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen, thank you for the interesting discussion. Private sector investment, both domestic and international, is the key in reaching financing for development targets. And as we've heard, its volume far exceeds other forms of financing, and its growth potential needs to be harnessed to achieve sustainable growth in developing countries. So we should use the ODA strategically for leveraging private capital and strengthening domestic resource mobilization. Finland uses a part of its ODA as an incentive for private investments and aims to enhance the use of blended finance instruments. We have deployed returnable capital as a part of our ODA for about a decade. Today we focus on building links between development and trade more than ever. Our development finance institution, FIN-FUND, has set a goal of increasing the proportion of private capital in its financing to at least 50% by 2030. They work towards this through sustainable bond issuance, project level syndications and fund management. So to deliver on the promise of blended finance, we need to use ODA and other concessional resources more strategically. Finland supports efforts to simplify and standardize blended finance. This will be key to achieve scalability and replicability of blended finance transactions like many have raised and make it easier for both governments and investors to utilize blended finance better. In this work, we expect to benefit greatly from work done by Convergence. They have identified standardisable blended finance structures based on evidence from previous transactions. We are already using this as we are currently reforming our legislations to be able to contribute better. Achieving scale will also require pooling of concessional capital. To do this, we need collaboration amongst the providers of such capital. Finland is glad to be a founding member of the Investment Mobilization Collaboration Alliance, IMCA, alongside other Nordic countries and the US. And what we have learned there is that aligning instruments and processes is essential for cooperation, and we believe standardizing will help us also in this respect. And to conclude, I want to highlight that market-based solutions should always be exhausted first. We need to ensure that while we make blended finance work better, we limit its use to where it is actually needed. So development finance not only generates strong and measurable social and environmental impact, but also provides attractive risk-adjusted returns based on our experience. and what we are seeing on the market, we believe there is potential to establish development finance as a recognizable and standardized asset class amongst international investors and supervisors. Thank you.

I thank the representative from Finland. I now give the floor to the distinguished representative for Iban International.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Are we being heard? I seriously ask this question. We want to remind this conference and the member states that civil society and people's movements are in civil. We are in the FFD process to demand the transformation of the international financial architecture and the right to sustainable development. We are deeply disappointed that the International Business Forum is being held side by side to our dialogue. Private finance and large capital are treated as life vests of a sinking development agenda despite contrary evidence in corporate abuse and rights violations in the global south. So are we being heard? We find it appalling that in stark contrast civil society and activists following the process and offering on-ground perspectives and their visions of development are sidelined in fully expressing our views in their vibrant forms. We are alarmed by the growing cases of harassment and silencing in this space. We are here to offer genuine and concrete solutions to advance the right to development, but how can we do this? How can we advance this fully when our rights are under attack? Precisely the development agenda is sinking because of the development model based on extraction of environmental, social and financial resources from the South and the prioritization of the power of profit. The situation of CSOs this week is just the tip of the iceberg in a system in crisis marked by growing militarism, marked by genocide. Global South CSOs and movements have been subjected to repression for long, a climate of fear and anxiety in a UN space, especially one held in Europe, sets a truly dangerous precedent, we believe. Who does FFD4 belong to, we ask? It is financing for development, not financing for profit making. Leveraged capital, which we like to talk about here, won't feel the brunt of crises when they hit. Capital will exit, but we remain in our countries in the South. This is why we want to prioritize public finance, finance that serves and is accountable to us, the public. This is why we want to democratize global economic and financial governance. Too much is at stake for us. The right to development guarantees that we have the right to contribute to and participate in development processes. At stake is the sovereignty of southern people over our own development. Are we being heard? Again, let me ask. When we can't even articulate our demands fully, how can we ensure that development serves us the people in the end? How can we ensure that development is legitimate, legitimately serving us? I end with that question. Thank you.

Thank you to the representative from IBON. Uh I'd now like to turn to the distinguished representative from Mexico, Ms. Dana Alarcon.

Good afternoon, excellencies, distinguished colleagues. For Mexico, leveraging the private sector is a strategic choice for driving productive sovereignty, as well as shared well-being and resilient and inclusive and sustainable economies. As a co-facilitator of this conference, Mexico has advocated for an ambitious narrative, one that doesn't reduce private financing as a means of capital, but which recognizes it as an engine for innovation, technology, and decent employment. Mexico's government has been promoting a sustainable industrial policy that was built on four key pillars. Sustainability with clear goals for decarbonization, circular economy and energy transition. Social and territorial inclusion through the strengthening of SMEs as well as value chains at the regional level and local production. We are also working on enabling regulation that is based on ESG criteria, legal certainty and responsible incentives. And finally, institutional coherence, aligning our national policies with global commitments such as the 2030 agenda and the Paris Agreement. This vision is reflected in specific actions. Through our Plan Mexico, we have been giving priority to strategic sectors, and we have also established 10 hubs for well-being, which provide infrastructure, logistic connectivity, tax incentives, and technical support. We also have cutting-edge financial instruments. Mexico's sustainable taxonomy, for instance, which classifies more than 120 economic activities on the basis of environmental, social and gender-based criteria. We also have a strategy for the mobilization of sustainable funding, which includes guidelines for investors and for channeling capital towards transformative sectors. We have the sovereign SDG bond, which is a pioneer in Latin America. This is directly linked to social outcomes and measurable environmental outcomes as well. We know that sustainable financing requires confidence, strategic partnerships, and a shared vision of the future. That's why in Mexico, we are promoting co-financing mechanisms, public-private partnerships, and innovative frameworks for cooperation, which allow us to align resources. At the same time, we are seeking to achieve an international financial architecture that is more just, more inclusive and more effective, one that not only mobilizes resources but which also transforms structures and unlocks the potential of our societies.

The representative from Mexico and I would like to call now on, give the floor to the distinguished representative of the International Financial Corporation.

Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen, As Ajay Banga reminds us, foreign aid is a rounding error compared to the trillions needed each year to achieve the SDGs. Estimates place the annual development finance gap at $4 trillion. But here is the opportunity. Reallocating just 1% of global institutional investors' assets under management per year to low and middle income countries could help to close this gap. and potentially to create up to 160 million new jobs. Yet, despite abundant global liquidity, private capital still does not flow at the needed scale to emerging markets. Why? Because it is not just about capital, it is about confidence. Investors continue to perceive these markets as high risk and low return due to policy unpredictability, currency volatility and limited investable projects. The World Bank Group's private sector investment lab launched last year with 15 global CEOs is helping us to assess and work on the biggest impediments to investments. Together, we are focusing on five critical areas. Number one, regulatory certainty, as we are testing under Mission 300, which aims to connect 300 million people in Africa to electricity by 2030. Second, political risk addressed through the new World Bank Group guarantee platform. Third, currency risk by expanding local currency financing, four, catalytic capital through junior equity to crowd in senior investors, and five, securitization to unlock insti- institutional investments at scale. Let me share two examples of how we are operationalizing this. First, under Mission 300, we are working at scale with the African Development Bank and others to catalyze energy investments and drive the reforms needed to attract private investment. This is one of the most ambitious efforts to date. Second, in blended finance, we are maximizing impact with minimal public capital. With limited public resources, blended finance operations in IFC plays a crucial role, using small amounts of donor capital to absorb risk and unlock larger commercial investments. IFC's Frontier Opportunities Fund is a strong example, using our net income and donor capital to take early stage risk and mobilize commercial investments in some of the most challenging countries. Over the last five years, the World Bank Group has mobilized close to $200 billion in private capital. with IFC contributing $125 billion, so more than 60% of the total. And we are not slowing down. This fiscal year, IFC is on track for another record in private capital mobilization with a focus on doubling our mobilization ratio. In short, the only scalable path to sustainable development is through private sector solutions enabled by smart regulation, sound risk sharing tools, and strong project pipelines. That is at the core of our mission. mobilizing private capital to create more and better jobs. Thank you.

I thank the representative from the IFC. I would now like to give the floor to His Excellency Kaku Rouadje Leon Adam, Minister of Foreign Affairs, African Integration and Ivorians Abroad of the Republic of Cote d'Ivoire.

Thank you.

Thank you very much, Chairman. Ladies and gentlemen, ministers, distinguished members of delegations, Cote d'Ivoire welcomes the organization of this roundtable, the topic of which remains at the heart of sustainable development financing in a global context that is marked by ever-scarcer public funding. In this context, Cote d'Ivoire would like to reaffirm that the private sector is a key motor for economic growth, job creation and innovation, and that it is essential to leverage it in order to achieve the SDGs. The initiative of His Excellency Mr. Alassane Ouattara, President of Cote d'Ivoire. Our country has placed the private sector at the heart of our development strategy. This can be seen in the growing share of private investment in our three successive national development plans. The share of private sector funding has gone.

From 60% to 74%.

For the private sector, we need to ensure that large-scale structural reforms aimed at improving the business environment and strengthening economic governance and attracting private investments are carried out, in Kutli, what we did, especially in order to strengthen legal protection for investment and facilitate and speed up bureaucratic procedures with the creation of several single windows, including for business creation formalities and the issuance of building permits. We also revised the general code of investment as well as sector-specific codes, such as those for mining, oil, and water. Cote d'Ivoire is convinced that in order to get the most out of private financing, we have to align economic interests and sustainable development. Therefore, our country has developed a national sustainable financing strategy, and we have integrated ESG criteria in the selection, in how we select the projects to receive financing. Moreover, corporate social responsibility is promoted with professional bodies whose capacities have been strengthened, especially as regards to small and medium-sized enterprises and startups. Getting the private sector more involved in development financing requires strong support from the international community, especially through triangular partnerships and multi-party partnerships. especially for sustainable investments, and this has to involve multinational development banks. We also have levers such as blended financing mechanisms or de-risking procedures for projects and guarantees that can help us with loans. Finally, I would like to reaffirm Cote d'Ivoire's commitment to sustainable development that is geared towards the private sector. Thank you.

I would now like to call on the distinguished representative for the European Network on Debt and Development.

Hello. Good morning, Mr. Chair. My name is Maria Jose Romero from Eurodad and the Civil Society FFD Mechanism. Civil society have engaged in the FFD process since its early days. We have shared proposals and advocated for an evidence-based and a right-based discussion on the role of private finance in development on the basis of the right to development. We are disappointed by the fact that this is not reflected in the FFD4 outcome document. Moreover, we are sidelined in this debate, which is also problematic. Here we are concerned about the overwhelming role that an agenda focused on promoting private capital mobilization has and about the outside role that the corporate sector has in what should be intergovernmental process. This conference is meant to address the structural barriers that undermine financing for sustainable development, not to promote initiatives that package the SDGs into investable opportunities. Since 2015, private finance has been promoted as a way to address a so-called financing gap in development and increasingly in climate finance. However, evidence shows that the trillions in financing has not come. As acknowledged also by the World Bank, this has been just a fantasy. The relentless promotion of private finance and calls to create an enabling environment for business are concerning. Civil society and academics have warned against the high risk of policies aimed at attracting private investors, as they can result in negative impacts on sustainable development needs and human rights obligations of the state. These concerns also apply to the European Union's Global Gateway strategy, which risks diverting scarce development resources to serve geopolitical and commercial interests. This is unacceptable. Mr. Chair, globally agreed standards and measures to regulate private investment in the public interest are essential. Regulations cannot be left to the ability of individual countries in a context of highly unequal distribution of power, including between global south countries and transnational corporations. Given the lack of evidence that the majority of development and climate projects in the global south are bankable, continuing to use public concession and finance and public institutions to promote new iterations of a problematic approach could be a mistake of historical proportions. Without strict conditions, it is already socializing the losses and privatizing the gains. Thank you very much.

Thank you very much to the representative from the European Network on Debt and Development. I believe that is our last speaker from the floor. I would now like to give the floor back to our moderator, Mr. Silveira, to invite brief final responses from the panelists and to make his own closing remarks.

Thank you very much, Mr. Co-Chair. We have heard a lot of statements from different countries, associations, institutions on this very important issue of leveraging private business and finance. We'd like now to turn to our panelists for their final comments, taking one to two minutes. And I will start with the Minister of Finance for the Kingdom of Oman, please. Yes, Neil.

Thank you very much. It was really, really fascinating, Mr. Moderator and co-chairs, just hearing from everybody, and I think everyone is saying a very similar thing in general, and that is that ultimately, if we want to be able to do what we need to do on the SDGs, We need to fix our economies. We need to draw in private sector funding in very innovative ways, direct ways. Obviously, what we do find as governments, there's normally direct funding from the private sector is expensive. As Eswatini, all of our external debt is still concessional debt through mainly MDBs. But if we want to be able to crowd in more funding, we're going to find innovative way, hence it's PPPs and many different options that we're speaking about that we need to do. But the bottom line is, and that is if we can get our economies to be able to be a safe place to land the money, money is like water, it flows down the road of least resistance. And hence, if our economies, if it's over-regulated, if our debt to GDPs aren't right, if we're on an unsustainable path, it'll just not flow down into our economy. So if we can get those things right and then create the right mechanisms for crowd again, private sector funding, it'll be the solution to our SDGs in time. Thank you very much, Mr. Madrozi.

Thank you very much, Minister. Now we turn to the Minister of Finance and Development for Lesotho, Mrs. Metaliani, please.

Thank you, Chair. Let me also start by thanking the discussants as well as the countries and institutions that have come in with statements that build on this very important topic. It is clear to us that it's not business as usual and we have to leverage as much as possible the public resources that we have. We understand that we have a task before us. Building trust is important, building transparency, dealing with issues of perceived risks and dealing decisively with issues of data disclosures is very important for decisions to be made. Investors need predictability, consistency and transparency for us to be able to get those private resources. In this connection, I must thank the African Development Bank, the World Bank, and other partners who have given their support to Mission 300, an initiative that provides and seeks to provide electricity to 300 million Africans. We need to pool concessional capital and leverage it as much as possible. The task is not to replace at all public finance, but to make it catalytic. Crowding that private capital, ensuring equity, sustainability and resilience. And we need to forge forward those global partnerships that are grounded in local realities, especially for the vulnerable economies of our world. So we look forward really to partnerships we look forward to building people building our planet together and we look forward to those that wish to collaborate to work together in this important initiative thank you very much.

Thank you very much Minister now I'll turn to the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Zambia Mr. Jaime, please.

Thank you very much. And perhaps in adopting what has been stated earlier, I would like to give another perspective, which is the importance of the countries in the global south also being inward looking in terms of creating an environment which is attractive to private sector investment. What do I mean by this? I'll give an example of what the African continent has done in terms of taking certain steps in the financial environment, like the creation of our own credit rating agency, which then is able to look more favorably at African countries. in terms of their rating, in terms of risk perception. And this, of course, can be a platform upon which we can have more favorable, if I can use the term again, financial flows into the continent. And also, it's important as we look at attracting investment finance from the private sector that whatever you undertake at the end of the day is bankable and therefore attractive to the private sector as well. And I think this would then make the development agenda attractive in a win-win sort of approach. And I think that's where we should also focus even as we encourage financial flows into the global south and into the African continent. Thank you very much.

Thank you very much, Mr. Haimi. And last but not least, the special representative for the president of the Russian Federation, Mr. Titov.

Thank you. Yeah, it's making the summary of what we heard today, the problem is not solved. And what we tried to put forward is we have to use any opportunity, any concrete program to increase financing of the budgets of the countries and concrete proposals. We talked today about the new digital platforms for ESG companies reports and for small and medium business development, that kind of possibilities. By the way, I have to thank the working group of FF D4 conference. including our proposal on digital MSMEs tools, they included in the final document. But we believe that small and medium businesses deserve a more permanent place in global development strategies than a single sentence in the civil compromise. today promote and give opportunity, trust small and medium businesses which can do a lot. Thank you.

Thank you very much, Mr. Titov. I turn back to you, Mr. McKinnon, for a final.

Thank you. Thank you very again. I'd like to thank the moderator and the panelists their contributions very much appreciated. Excellencies and distinguished delegates, let me begin by thanking my co-chair, the Minister of Finance from Pakistan, Muhammad Harun Gazib. He had to leave a little early, and all participants of this roundtable for the interesting and important contributions and commitments that have been made today. The summary of our deliberations and the discussion will be presented to the closing plenary meeting of the conference in the afternoon of Thursday, 3 July, and included in the final report of the conference. We have thus concluded this multi-stakeholder roundtable. I would note 20 minutes early, and I therefore call this meeting adjourned. UN record well done.