BRICS sees financing for development as key to carrying out 2030 Agenda

Financing for development is the key to the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the guideline to end poverty in the world by 2030, the BRICS told a high-level UN meeting here on Tuesday.

The statement came as Liu Jieyi, the Chinese permanent representative to the United Nations, was taking the floor at the UN meeting on the financing for Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) on behalf of the member countries of the BRICS, which groups Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.

This is the first time for the bloc to air its views on important global issues since its establishment in 2006. China has earlier this year assumed the BRICS' presidency for the year of 2017.

"Financing for development is the key to the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development," Liu said. "Assured and predicable financial flow is indispensable to the realization of sustainable development, particularly by developing countries."

The SDGs serve as the blueprint for global development efforts for the years running up to 2030.

Liu urged the the international community to take a strategic and long-term view of financing for development, and to actively advance international cooperation in this area at the national, regional and international levels.

All these efforts should be made based on renewed and enhanced global partnership for sustainable development, to "mobilize adequate resources for the realization of sustainable development by all countries, especially developing countries," he said.

"Economic globalization has suffered setbacks and we have witnessed the rise of inward-looking and protectionist tendencies in some countries' policies and the growth of 'anti-globalization' thinking," he noted.

"International cooperation for development is faced with daunting challenges of declining political will, dwindling resources and fragmentation of efforts. Financing for development is confronted with ever greater difficulties," he said.

Against such a backdrop, he said, "BRICS hopes that this meeting will help all parties to foster consensus and stimulate political will so as to mobilize needed resources and take international cooperation in financing for development to a new height, thus providing strong impetus to the global effort to implement the 2030 Agenda."

"The global success of the 2030 Agenda for sustainable development is essential for our collective peace and common development," he said.

"As North-South cooperation is the main channel of development financing, the international community must uphold the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities' (CBDR) and push North-South cooperation to continue to play its key role," he said.

Developed countries should bear the primary responsibility in financing for development, honor their official development assistance commitments, fulfill the commitments under Technology Facilitation Mechanism, help developing countries with capacity building and offer further debt reduction and market access to developing countries, he said.

South-South cooperation is not a substitute to North-South cooperation, but an expression of solidarity among peoples and countries of the South, based on their shared experiences and objectives, Liu said.

In allocating development resources, priority should be given to areas that bear most directly on people's livelihood and development of developing countries, such as poverty eradication, infrastructure development, health, education, he said.

Parties may, in ways that best suit their countries' situation, actively further enhance joint financing models like tripartite or multi-party cooperation among developed countries, developing countries and multilateral development institutions, he said.

"Financing cooperation should be strengthened within the framework of international development institutions such as the World Bank, and the Asia Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB)," Liu said. "Meanwhile, there is a need to explore innovative financing in a progressive and orderly way with a view to finding meaningful ways of financing for development."

There is a need to improve the global economic governance and create an enabling international environment for development, he said.

"We should expedite the reform of the international financial system, increase the representation and voice of emerging markets and developing countries, and create a stable economic environment and a fair regulatory environment for countries to work together for development and share in the fruits thereof," he said.

"The BRICS looks forward to a constructive intergovernmental engagement in the upcoming ECOSOC (the UN Economic and Social Council) forum on financing for development follow-up and obtaining substantial and fruitful outcome," he said. Endi