Borrowers' Platform: first Governing Council meeting

participating countries at the interim chair. When Egypt assumed the interim chairmanship, we understood that our role was not ceremonial. We had stepped forward at the platform most demanding and, let me say, perhaps most difficult stage, turning an initiative into an institution that reflects the aspirations and will of the participating countries. We are proud, and Egypt is proud, to have helped lay this foundation, proud to stand alongside the incoming chair, who have just joined us, and proud to see the Borrowers Platform begin its journey under the leadership of its own members. But this has never been an Egyptian initiative alone. I would particularly like to recognize the work undertaken since Seville, including through the working group that started the initial work in New York for the establishing of the platform co-chaired by Pakistan and Egypt, with the membership of Zambia, Colombia, Honduras, Maldives, and Nepal. I also want to recognize all the countries that participated in the interim steering committee. We will shortly hear from the chair of the interim steering committee a brief report on the contributions, principal deliverables, and outcomes of this interim phase. We began this process with only a small number of countries. Through sustained outreach and growing ownership, the number has expanded significantly. Today, we are proud to have received officially 30 letters of intent to join the BOROS platform. I extend Egypt's sincere appreciation to the UNCTAD Secretariat for its technical expertise and support through this formative period. I'm confident that this experience has also been valuable for the Secretariat. As for our partners, many of whom are represented in this room today, we look forward to continuing a constructive and open dialogue with all of you. We hope that this dialogue will deepen effective engagement and cooperation at a time when the global economy is facing increasingly complex economic and political challenges. Colleagues, the Borrowers' Platform is not here to duplicate existing institutions, nor to replace our engagement with creditors, international financial institutions, or markets. It is here to make that engagement stronger. It is its purpose is clear to strengthen the collective voice of borrowing countries, identify our shared priorities, deepen technical cooperation, and ensure that borrowers are not only part of the international financial conversation, but better equipped to shape it. And the need for this could not be greater. Developing countries today face high financing costs, complex debt structures, refinancing pressures, climate vulnerabilities, and increasingly constrained fiscal space. In many countries, debt service is competing directly with the resources needed for development. We cannot respond to these challenges through crisis management alone. The platform must therefore be forward-looking and practical, helping countries strengthen their debt management, better understand and manage risks, develop domestic markets, improve asset and liability management, explore innovative financing solutions and above all learn from one another about what works and what does not. Financing is perhaps the most critical element. Egypt has voluntarily taken the initiative to invest resources in the platform and we invite all member states to follow suit financially and more importantly also by contributing people and experience. Today Or this afternoon, our first governing council will take the decision that complete this transition and conclude the work of the interim stage. Our objective as interim chair was never simply to chair a process. It was to help establish an institution capable of continuing beyond any one chair, any one country, and any one cycle. The true measure of our success will now be whether members use this platform, whether it becomes a source of knowledge, technical cooperation and practical solution, and whether it strengthen the contribution of borrowing countries to a fairer, more responsive, and more development-oriented international financial architecture. Today, the establishment phase comes to an end. The work of the Borrower's Platform begins. Egypt is proud to have helped bring us to this point, and we look forward to working alongside all of you as we begin this next chapter together. Thank you so much. I think after this opening statement, we will hear now an opening statement from His Excellency, Mr. Antonio Guterres, Secretary General of the United Nations. It is a video message.

Excellencies, dear friends, the first convening of the Governing Council of the Borrower's Platform is a milestone in our quest for financial justice for developing countries, and perhaps the most important outcome of the Seville Commitment. Today's debt crisis demands more than a technical fix. It requires a fundamental shift to correct power imbalances across the global debt architecture. That is what the Borrower's Platform can provide. Developing countries face a perfect storm: geopolitical tensions and conflicts, trade and climate pressures, a lack of adequate financing, and high debt service burdens. Interest payments on public debt in developing countries approached US$1 trillion last year, growing faster than government revenues. And 3.7 billion people now live in countries where external debt service exceeds spending on health or education. The Borrowers Platform offers members an opportunity to navigate this storm. I commend all countries whose leadership has carried this initiative forward and for completing the hard work of agreeing how the platform will function. This meeting is about shaping a program of work that responds to members' needs. I see three priorities. First, building this platform's capacity through the experience, engagement, and political support of all member countries. Second, engaging with other actors in the debt ecosystem, from international financial institutions to the G7 and the Paris Club. It is time for this platform to claim its space and become a powerful voice for advocacy. And third, delivering for member countries facing debt crises by providing advice, tools, and solutions in key areas. How to make use of a new set of debt instruments and tools, such as debt swaps and pauses, how to engage with investors and rating agencies, and how to navigate sovereign restructurings when necessary. Standing together, the platform can be a powerful and permanent space to ensure countries can negotiate debt solutions from a position of strength and experience. And it serves as a further reminder that by strengthening the voice and participation of developing countries, we can create a more effective and just international financial architecture fit for the 21st century. United Nations stands with you in this important effort. Thank you.

Thank you so much. I want to really thank the Secretary-General for his message and support throughout the entire process. I now have the pleasure to invite Mr. Pedro Mourino, Acting Secretary General of the UNCTAD, to deliver remarks on behalf of the Secretariat. Mr. Mourino, you have the floor.

Thank you, dear Chair, Minister Kuchuk. Ministers, Excellencies, delegates, distinguished colleagues and friends, welcome to the first Governing Council of the Borowest platform. Fifteen months ago in Sevilla, you committed to creating this platform, and today you are launching it. A governing council, a chair, a program of work, a commitment honored, and one whose time has clearly come, as the Secretary General of the UN just said. For decades, creditors have had permanent forums. Borrowing countries who carry the weight of every restructuring, every rate swing, every crisis have navigated those waters alone, learning hard lessons that too often disappear before they could be shared. Today, that begins to change. Today, borrowers have a permanent space of their own, of your own. Let me thank the people who brought us here. Egypt, dear Minister Kuchuk and your team, for leading the interim phase with urgency, with care, with mastery, and this is the result of this impeccable work. Pakistan, for costearing the working group and bringing countries together in Malae for the platform's first change. Zambia, Colombia, Honduras, Maldives, Nepal, for the sustained commitment that kept this moving when it could easily have stalled. And we all know that. And Penelope Hawkins and the UNCTAD, the team, of course, my team, who worked behind the scenes to get us to this afternoon. Thank you to all of you and congratulations. Excellencies, UNCTAD exists because 60 years ago, developing countries looked at the institutions of global trade and finance and saw a system built without them. We were created to change that, to give the developing world its own research, its own voice, and the tools to negotiate on equal terms. From commodity markets to investment rules to sovereign debts, that is what these institutions have done every single day for over 60 decades. In Sevilla, we heard countries say loud and clear that the international financial architecture needs to work better for the developing world. The international financial architecture is not unbalanced because it is unkind. It is unbalanced because it is unfinished. This platform is a crucial step toward finishing that job, providing a missing pillar in the system. It is not the only step. Actually, much work remains. But it is an important one, and we are proud to, again, be part of it. As your secretariat, UN Trade and Development, UNCTAD, is ready. We are learning shapes by your priorities, a knowledge base drawn from decades of research, and the hands-on support that strengthens every member's position. So, Excellencies, this platform is yours, and we are honored to serve it. Again, thank you. and congratulations.

Thank you, Mr. Molino. I now have the pleasure to invite Mrs. Almeida, the Executive Secretary of the ESCAP, to deliver her remarks. And thank you also for hosting us today in this lovely building. The floor is yours.

Excellency Finance Minister Kuchuk, as interim chair of the Borers Platform, acting Secretary General of UNTAD, my colleague, my dear friend, Pedro Moreno, Excellencies, Finance Ministers, distinguished delegates, ladies and gentlemen, a warm welcome and it is indeed my pleasure to welcome you all to Bangkok as well as to ESCAP. So, we meet here actually in one of the room, a meeting room of ESCAP, the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific. I congratulate the participating countries, the interim steering committee under the interim chair, Egypt and UNTAD for bringing the platform to this very important stage. Today, the focus shifts to implementation and to making it work for borrowing countries. From the perspectives of the Asia-Pacific region, this transition comes at a very important time. Debt service pressures in our region are increasingly competing with development financing needs for LDCs and other low-income countries, around 22% of government revenue was absorbed by external debt servicing in 2024. This leaves less fiscal space for infrastructure, health, education, social protection, and climate resilience. The challenge is therefore not to analyze debt in isolation, but to consider how countries can meet financing obligations while continuing to invest in development. The financing landscape behind this pressure is also changing. The concessional share of external public finance in developing countries has declined from about 42% back then in 2010 to around 18% in 2024. As concessional finance becomes less prominent, borrowers rely more on other sources, some of which carry higher costs or greater refinancing and currency risk. A more diverse creditor base also makes debt recording, risk analysis, and coordination more demanding. This gives borrower cooperation a practical purpose. Countries can share what has worked in managing refinancing and currency risk, strengthening debt information and working with different creditors. The platform can turn these experiences into a shared resource, resources, helping borrowers identify and manage risk earlier rather than respond only after problems emerge. At the global level, lessons from borrowers can inform a stronger collective voice, while discussions on the global debt architecture can be grounded more firmly in the financing realities countries face. This is especially important as the severe commitment moves from agreement to implementation. Excellencies, the first annual cycle of the Borrowers Platform is an opportunity to demonstrate its practical value. Success will ultimately be measured by whether borrowers can learn more easily from one another, manage financing risk more effectively, and translate their experience into a stronger voice internationally. In this context, ESCAP can support this process through regional evidence and intergovernmental dialogue. We also look forward to working with participating countries and UN and UNTAD colleagues at UNTAD as the platform begins this next phase. I wish you, and in closing, I wish you a productive first meeting, a very successful one of the Governing Council. Thank you very much.

Thank you, Ms. Almeida, and thank you for your nice words. We now turn to the report of the Interim Chair, reflecting on the work undertaken during the interim phase and the progress achieved in establishing the Borrowers Platform. I have the pleasure to invite Dr. Asara Alkitchen, Chair of the Borus Platform Interim Steering Committee to present the report. Dr. Asara, you have the floor.

Thank you, Excellency. Honorable Ministers, Excellencies, distinguished colleagues, ladies and gentlemen, it's my privilege as the Chair of the Interim Steering Committee to present a brief account of the work undertaken over the past six months. As His Excellency Minister Kojok has outlined, this has been a period of transition from a shared political ambition to the establishment of an institution. My remarks will focus on the approach, on what we have achieved together, and the principles that, in Egypt's view, should guide the platform as it moves forward. When we were entrusted with the chairmanship of the interim phase, We discussed with the room in the exceptional interim steering committee what should be our pillars. We agreed about three main pillars with regards to the institutional pillars, of course, establishing the governance, expanding membership and preparing for this big day, the inaugural governing council. We also agreed together to advance the platform broad agenda into a technical agenda, a practical agenda that responds to the needs of borrowing countries. And we also agreed to work together on building partnerships and international recognition necessary for the platform to become an effective voice in the global debt architecture. What we have achieved is evident today. Throughout the successive meetings of the Interim Steering Committee, we managed first to finalize the modalities, which was a great exercise, a challenging exercise, never easy. However, we managed to make it before because we prioritized our common goal before everything. Today, we have a consolidated governance framework, including the Governing Council and Steering Committee structure, chairmanship rotation, troika arrangement, a financing model, and also the role of the Secretariat. all of which we are so proud. On membership, as His Excellency has clarified, we started with a small number of confirmed members, and then the number has grown. We have by now, as we speak today, 30 letters of intent joining by the end of interim phase. This reflects the growing sense of ownership and the willingness of countries to invest on this common endeavor. On the technical front, We were equally conscious that the platform needs to advance on the technical front as well. As was mentioned, the first peer learning workshop in Maldives, organized by Pakistan and held by Maldives, provided an important early demonstration of this. And building on this, we have identified an initial set of technical priorities agreed in the room to become the technical priorities for the first annual cycle and to guide the preparations for the next workshop planned for Cairo in January 2027. Lastly, allow me to share just one reflection from the experience of chairing the interim steering committee. In the very first meeting when we met in the room, we raised this important question. We have seen so many promising international initiatives that lose momentum over time. So what can we do differently? We raised this question in the room. How can we protect this platform from losing its momentum? The answer was not straightforward. We strived to find it, but we finally found it in one word, the identity. We really need to work on sustaining the momentum of this platform by maintaining its identity, and here the views of Egypt that members are the owners, they are the rule-setters and the agenda-shapers, and that the system needs to evolve to respond to their needs. We also agreed that we must preserve the spirit of openness and constructive dialogue that brought us this far. We will not always agree, we have never did. but we must always find common ground and move forward together. This is a lesson learned from the exceptional Interim Steering Committee that was really exceptional and today is a testament of what those people can do, of what we can do together. So I will conclude my remarks by thanking all Steering Committee members, colleagues, those of you who are here. and also those are joining us online for your commitment and trust. It has been a privilege to facilitate this process and to work alongside dedicated colleague. I would like to also extend thanks to UNCTAD Secretariat for their support as Secretariat and for providing their technical capacity to the process and looking forward to what we can achieve together in the next chapter. Thank you.

Thank you, Dr. Asara, and thank also all the members of this interim steering committee for all the hard work, dedication, they spend days and nights to find common ground and to move forward. We now turn to the statements from member states of the Boros platform, reflecting perspectives from across the platform's regional and country groupings to ensure that we remain aligned with our meeting agenda. I would kindly invite your excellencies to limit your remarks to three minutes. I greatly appreciate your understanding and cooperation. First, I am very pleased to invite His Excellency, Mr. Situmbuko, Minister of Finance and National Planning, representing Zambia, to deliver remarks on behalf of the Africa region. Excellency, you have the floor.

Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. And let me adopt the protocols already observed by others. And allow me to thank you for the confidence placed in Zambia to speak on behalf of African members of the Borrowers Platform. We commend Egypt for its leadership as interim chair, the steering committee for establishing the foundations of the platform, and ANCTAD for providing secretariat support. We also thank the Kingdom of Thailand for hosting us. Excellencies, this platform is an important step towards giving borrowing countries a stronger voice in decisions about international debt. Many African countries face high debt costs, limited access to affordable loans, and lengthy debt restructuring processes. These challenges leave governments with fewer resources, as we have already heard. Decisions about debt, therefore, matter not only to governments, but also to the everyday lives of people. The platform gives borrowing countries an opportunity to learn from one another, share practical solutions, and speak with a stronger collective voice on issues affecting that our countries must have a meaningful role in shaping the rules and decisions that affect the economic future. As the platform begins its work, we must move from establishing structures to delivering practical results. This means implementing the agreed work program, sharing expertise and regularly reviewing progress to ensure that members benefit from their participation. We must also encourage more eligible countries, particularly those in Africa that have not yet joined to become members. The success of the platform will ultimately depend upon the commitment of its members to participate actively. Excellencies, The vision of a stronger collective voice for borrowing countries is also reflected in the severe commitment which Zambia was honored to co-facilitate. We must build on this commitment to promote an international debt system that listens to borrowing countries, recognizes their development needs, and supports their efforts to improve livelihoods. On behalf of Zambia and African members, I reaffirm our commitment to the success of the Borrows platform. We stand ready as for us here in Zambia, for us in Zambia, who has gone through a lot in terms of debt restructuring. We stand ready to share our experiences, support fellow members, and work with all participating countries and actors to advance our objectives. Mr. Chairman, I wish to thank you.

Thank you, Your Excellency, for the nice words and also for speaking from your heart. I will now invite His Excellency, Mr. Vahie, Minister of Finance of Armenia, representing the Asia-Pacific region. Excellency, you have the floor.

Thank you, Chair. Distinguished co-chairs, excellencies, ladies and gentlemen, it is a true honor and pleasure to take part in the inaugural meeting of the Governing Council of the Borrowers Platform and to together declare the launch of this vital initiative. I would like to express my sincere gratitude to UNCTAD for its effort as the secretariat of the platform and for effectively coordinating our teams as well as to all member states whose dedicated involvement has brought this platform to life and to Egypt for leading it. The creation of this platform couldn't have been more timely for borrowing countries and developing economies, it could provide an essential space to strengthen our collective voice in the international stage, address shared challenges, and discover practical real-world solutions in public debt management. For Armenia, joining this initiative was a very natural decision. In recent years, we had undertaken monumental efforts to strengthen public debt management and ensure financial system stability. We have fundamentally reformed our legislative framework and aligning public debt reporting standards with the highest international benchmarks. Perhaps one of the most significant achievements has been the qualitative transformation of our debt composition. Years ago, nearly 80% of our debt was denominated in foreign currency. Today, more than half of the government's debt is in our national currency. This shift has enabled us to drastically reduce foreign exchange risks, develop our domestic government securities market, and secure long-term financial stability. Through this consistent policy, we have witnessed an unprecedented surge in international investor confidence. Clear evidence of this is seen both in the multifold increase of non-resident participation in our domestic government securities and in the sharp decline of Armenia's country risk premium on international markets. Building on this progress, under our new five-year program, the government has set a clear objective to reduce the interest burden to below 10% of state budget revenues. To support this objective and further strengthen public debt management, we intend to pursue a number of key initiatives and reforms. This includes diversifying our debt instruments through thematic inflation-linked bonds and potential issuances in Asian markets. We are also promoting retail investment in government securities, including through digital platforms operated by the banking sector, and further developing the primary dealer system to enhance competition and efficiency in the market. And today we are here to willingly share this journey, our accumulated experience and the lessons we have learned. At the same time, we know that many of you have carried out equally strong or even more advanced reforms. That is why we are genuinely eager to learn from your experiences and explore innovative solutions together. Armenia has officially confirmed its participation in the platform and we are committed to actively engaging in the implementation of the first annual work plan, placing a special emphasis on peer learning, knowledge sharing and capacity building. I propose that we work closely together and truly enjoy this joint journey. Thank you.

Thank you so much. And we can all relate to what you have mentioned. Thank you. Finally, it's my pleasure also to invite Mrs. Hoda, Permanent Representative of the Republic of Maldives to the UN ESCAP, representing small island developing states. Excellency, you have the floor.

Thank you, Chair. Good afternoon, honorable ministers, excellencies, and distinguished colleagues. have the honor of delivering this statement on behalf of the group of small island developing states. I congratulate you, Chair, on your election as the Chair of the Platform for the 2027 to 2028 term. With this Governing Council meeting, we must now begin the full operationalization of the Platform, utilizing the wealth of knowledge, experience, and expertise of our growing membership to address our debt and debt sustainability. Rest assured, Chair, the CIDS will engage actively in these discussions and efforts. I also extend our sincere appreciation to Egypt as the interim chair of the Borrowers Platform for their excellent leadership and hard work in finalizing the modalities of the platform and the preparations for this Governing Council meeting. We look forward to the Cairo workshop to be held in January 2027, and to sharing our experiences and priorities in debt management and debt transparency. For many small island developing states, borrowing is unavoidable. As ODA declines and concessional financing becomes difficult to access, borrowing becomes the easiest means to finance development. With effects of climate change increasing in frequency and intensity, SIDS must also borrow to adapt, mitigate, and recover from those effects. When a hurricane hits, when the islands flood, the beaches erode, it takes away years of development and finance that must be recovered in a short time. Exacerbating these challenges is the high cost of borrowing. Today, most developing countries are paying more for debt servicing than investing in education and health. Heads are paying on average 16.3% of total government revenue on debt servicing. This cannot continue. We must find solutions. Until today, borrowing countries did not have a platform where they could exchange views, ideas, or share experiences and best practices in managing debt and debt sustainability. With the launch of the Borrowers Platform, we are turning a new page in international finance This platform brings together borrowing countries not as a negotiating block, but as an opportunity for peer learning to exchange technical and technological capacity and build our resilience to the challenges we face. In this regard, we take note of the technical workshop held earlier this year in the Maldives in partnership with Pakistan and UNCTAD, which brought together nine countries from different regions. We look forward to more such workshops and other opportunities for countries to learn from one another. One of the biggest challenges to addressing debt and debt sustainability in SEEDS is the lack of data in many SEEDS. We hope that through this platform, SEEDS will be able to find solutions to addressing these data gaps and addressing other challenges in debt management. We remain committed to the work of this platform and will work with you, Chair, to ensure that the platform is a place where borrowing countries can learn from, build resilience, and overcome the challenges they face. I thank you.

Thank you, Excellency, and thank you to all member state representatives for the remarks. We now turn to the outcomes of the peer learning workshop held during the interim phase. I'm pleased to invite UNCTAD Secretariat to present the key outcomes of the workshop and the main areas emerging from the discussions. Mrs. Pinnapalli, you have the floor.

Thank you, Chair. And indeed, it's wonderful to jump in just here after Her Excellency from the Maldives. This is a picture of that peer learning in action, the nine country representatives and UNCTAD secretariat working together to unpack various challenges. Why did we look at the topics we did? Well, perhaps it's worthwhile just putting this into context. UNCTAD's latest research on external flows of financial capital to developing countries shows that four all developing countries, non-resident financial inflows have been a shrinking share of gross capital formation or of investment. This is particularly visible in all the three regions that we have below. And what has been happening is that new non-resident financial inflows have shrunk by 18%, while domestic financing has grown. And in spite of a rise of 45% over these 10 years in gross capital formation, external financial inflows have declined. We can move to the next slide. Thank you. And at the same time, we have seen domestic public debt growing faster than external debt. If we look at this data, you can see that domestic debt of general government has started to outpace that of external debt. And while this leads to lower external vulnerability, the problem is that there are higher borrowing costs and often domestic financial risks, including contagion. Next slide, please. Thank you. We see that developing countries face a double borrowing cost disadvantage. There are two graphs here. The one shows domestic versus external debt of developing countries. And you can see that domestic debt, which is the yellow line, is priced at a margin of at least 2.5 percentage points over this long period of time relative to external debt. And at the same time, if we look at the graph on the right, developing versus developed countries pay a premium of at least three percentage points over what developed countries pay. Please, let's move to the next slide. And so this is why at the Mali workshop, we were looking at debt sustainability, proactive debt management, and domestic capital markets. How is it that one moves away from these two distinct premia? We looked also at climate financing, institutional frameworks within countries, and transparency and investor communication. What we learned from this is that in a candid space, practical learning takes place. And this idea of having members only mechanisms for requests between countries emerged as an example, as did the need for continued exchanges and knowledge and outreach. So what we see in the result is that the final workshop gave us key ideas about how it was necessary for peer-to-peer exchange to take place. And as you leave this audience today, we will be ensuring that you all have now the start of the knowledge repository that we have been working on that you can access as member states of this process. We truly hope that what we have been doing here is planting a tree and in years to come we will look back at the forest that has evolved and know it is sustainable. Thank you very much.

Thank you, Secretariat. We now turn to perspectives from invited stakeholders and representatives of international organizations, civil society, experts, and academia. This platform is built on dialogue and meaningful engagement with our partners and stakeholders. In this spirit, I'm pleased to invite His Excellency, Dr. Mahmoud Mohieldin, the United Nations Special Envoy on Financing the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, and the co-chair of the United Nations Secretary General Expert Group on that to deliver his remarks. I would like also to seize this opportunity to thank Dr. Mahmoud and the UN Expert Group for recognizing the need to establish this platform and advocating for the idea even before it was born. Dr. Mahmoud, you have the floor.

Right. Thank you so much, honorable Minister, Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen, Executive Secretary of ESCAP, the Acting Secretary General of UNCTAD, all around today celebrating this very important and notable moment of the development on that architecture. Some of us refer to the efforts leading to Seville and the Finance for Development Conference and their right to do so. That had benefited from a great deal of work and led by the UN member states. Some of us as well, veterans of the debt architectures, they may refer to the previous attempts. Some of them go back to the 1980s after the Latin American that crisis or the attempts by African ministers after the global financial crisis. And now in a different moment, we are learning from what had happened, and the countries of the global south are growing to be more sophisticated and more able to get the right institution to defend their interest. I'd like to go back to the three points of emphasis by the Secretary General of the UN. He shared his expectations on the capacity to be provided to the members of this important platform for the engagement with the stakeholders and for the technical advice to be provided by the members. All require in the next steps emphasis on the institutional capacity of this very platform. In the work of the United Nations Secretary General's expert group, in which I have the honor to co-lead along with Trevor Manuel, Paolo Gentiloni, and Wang, and more recently, Remy Rioux, who joined us, we emphasized the importance of this platform. And let me quote the importance of establishing a forum, now this is the Borrower's Platform, for borrowers First, to share knowledge and experience. Second, to provide advice and enhance the effectiveness of their representation and voice in the international forum. Given that we are doing this here at the margins of the annual meetings of the IMF and the World Bank, and I would say as well other institutions, there would be a great deal of expectations, and rightly so, for this platform to coordinate the voice of the borrowers. And I would start really of the experience from the IMF and the World Bank on dealing with the challenges related to the lack of even-handedness in this institution. It can create a space, the platform can create a space for countries to learn systematically from one another, to strengthen their technical capacities and to identify common challenges. The real measure of progress and success, I would say, in the international debt architecture by the participation of this important addition to it, shouldn't be how efficiently we manage the next debt crisis. It should be how many crises we prevent from occurring in the first place. Harder to measure, harder to get credit for, but this is very much important, not just to manage a crisis, but to prevent a from happening. The creation of this important Borrower's Platform therefore represents an opportunity not to create another layer in an already complex and confusing international architecture, but to add a perspective that has too often been fragmented within it. Let me end by congratulating all of the member states participating in this process and congratulate Egypt for excellent coordination and the work of the UN family at large, represented by the UNCTAD, in delivering this long-awaited-for institution. I wish the members of the platform every success as they begin this new chapter. Thank you so much.

Thank you. Thank you, Dr. Mahmoud. I now invite Mrs. Janet Jew, Executive Director of the African Forum and Network on Debt and Development to deliver her remarks. The floor is yours.

Thank you, Chair. Chair, honorable ministers, governors, heads of delegation, colleagues from civil society, the media, and other stakeholders that are in this room, all protocol observed. I am going to make my interventions on behalf of the delegation of the Global South organizations of the civil society, FFD mechanism and its southern debt leads, AFRODAD, Asia People's Movement on Debt and Development, Latin America and the Caribbean Network for Economic, Social and Climate Justice, LatinDAD. Chair, This first Borrower's Platform Governing Council meeting is a historic day for developing countries, and we would like to thank the people of the Kingdom of Thailand for their warm welcome. We begin in solidarity with our hosts. In recent weeks, floods have taken lives and affected more than 3 million across the Kingdom of Thailand. This is a reminder that climate shocks like these push developing countries deeper into debt, as we have also heard from the representative from the islands. The compromise of this avila set the reforms of the global debt architecture in motion. We collectively welcome the council and appreciate the inclusion of civil society in these processes. Our constituencies chair leave the debt crisis every day through cuts in public services, heavier tax burdens, and a persistently high cost of living. For long, creditors have set the rules, and these rules have failed to prevent the debt crisis and the debt distress that many of our countries face today. This platform puts borrowers at the core of the process And it is consistent with initiatives already ongoing. For example, at the AU level, we have the common African position on debt, which was adopted. We have long called for a shift from a creditor-centered debt architecture to a democratic one that is grounded in international law through a United Nations framework convention on sovereign debt. And this Borrower's Platform is a critical element of such an architecture and a complement to it. We do deliver our concerns today, Honourable Members. Many countries now face a solvency crisis. The system that should resolve this crisis is full of contradictions itself, with quite a number of institutions operating both as creditors and also as arbiters of the debt sustainability frameworks. Multilateral development banks stay out of debt restructuring to protect their own credit ratings. And there are five pressures that drive this crisis that I would want to mention. The first one is the cost of capital chair. Developing countries borrow at two or four times the rate of many countries like the United States, and we have seen the graphs shown there. The second one is foreign exchange scarcity, which fuels instability, depreciation, and inflation. And this raises the cost, the real cost of borrowing, including on debt in local currency, and make domestic debt unsustainable as well. Import-reliant and dollarized economies are hit the hardest. We have seen and experienced shrinking aid. We have seen the debt service crowding out public services. And the Secretary-General mentioned that over 3.4 billion people live in countries that spend more on interest payments than on health and education, Chair. Climate resilience and social protection are squeezed out. Finally, the other pressure, Chair, is creditor-led debt restructuring. There is no adequate and effective mechanism for resolving sovereign debt crisis. The common framework is creditor-centered and cannot rein in public creditors. Many borrowers are ineligible for it and restructure through other processes that still run through the IMF. I will conclude with three recommendations, Chair, to overcome these challenges. We offer three recommendations within your mandate. The first recommendation is to reduce the cost of capital for borrower countries. The Secretary General called on the borrowers platform to use peer learning to build country capacities, both technical and political, to engage with creditors and credit rating agencies including on holding ratings during restructuring. We hope that you'll be able to share experiences on negotiating fair and transparent loan terms. The second recommendation, Chair, is on use of peer learning to strengthen national debt laws in borrower countries, and you said it yourself. We hope that you'll be able to support countries to shape laws on how debt is contracted, managed, and restructured so that debt serves development. We hope that through this, we will be able to move to recognizing debt and development as a human rights issue. The third recommendation, Chair, is on debt sustainability analysis. that may the borrowers on their debt sustainability analysis. Creditors have challenged debt sustainability forecasts at every phase of the debt cycles, including the IMF Article IV reviews. I'll give you an example as I close. Argentina, for example, ran its own debt sustainability projections, and the IMF later publicly recognized that its initial analysis had been too optimistic. We hope that this platform will go further, that it will use debt sustainability analysis to integrate key national criteria such as sustainable development, climate and human rights needs. In closing, Chair, the regional civil society organizations of the Global South are committed to the success of the Borrowers' Platform. We worked closely the African group and other southern member states to open and advance negotiations on the UN framework convention on international tax cooperation taking part in key Global spaces and processes we look forward to building an equally fruitful working relationship with this platform chair thank you.

Thank you for the spirit and for speaking from your heart. Excellencies, distinguished guests, thank you for your valuable contributions to this open segment of the Boros platform. The perspectives we have heard today from our member states, partners, civil society and experts are an important reminder of both the urgency of the challenges before us and the value of creating this new space for cooperation among borrowers countries. On behalf of Egypt as in turn chair, I thank all of our speakers and participants for joining us on this important occasion. This conclude the open segment of our meeting. Back to Mrs. Hawkins.

Thank you so much, Chair. And to honor this moment, we would like to have a photograph with all of you. We'd like to suggest perhaps that those on the podium and the ministers and central bank governors and representatives of member states move out first, if you could just give everybody a minute to do that, to take a photograph of the members. and then we invite all of you to join us on the stairs outside for this moment. May I suggest that you do take your belongings with you. For the ministers and the governors of the member state platform, please, you can leave all your belongings here. They are safe. You're going to come back into the room. But for those who've been invited to the open segment, only if I may ask that you take your goods with you, and we look forward to seeing you at a photograph outside. Thank you.