Aurangzeb calls for equitable global financial reforms
The conference, convened to address the widening gap in financing for sustainable development, served as a global platform for countries to present national perspectives and outline their contributions and expectations regarding sustainable development financing.
In his address to the conference, Senator Aurangzeb articulated Pakistan's priorities, challenges, and reform efforts, while calling for urgent and coordinated global action to strengthen the international financial architecture in line with the principles of equity, solidarity, and inclusivity.
Global economic reforms demanded
The Finance Minister acknowledged the scale of global challenges currently facing developing countries and pointed to a confluence of pressures—deepening debt vulnerabilities, accelerating climate impacts, and the reversal of hard-won development gains—that have further widened the global SDG financing gap.
He stressed that while the Monterrey, Doha, and Addis Ababa conferences laid the foundations of a more inclusive global financial system, much remains to be done to translate those commitments into effective mechanisms that deliver tangible support to countries most in need.
Senator Aurangzeb welcomed the renewed resolve demonstrated through the 'Compromiso de Sevilla' and appreciated its practical and forward-looking proposals. These include pledges to double support for domestic resource mobilisation, reverse aid cuts, increase concessional financing through new metrics beyond GDP, expand the lending capacity of multilateral development banks, scale up local currency lending, and re-channel unutilised Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) through structured frameworks.
He called for early implementation of these commitments, particularly in the area of debt reform, including the establishment of an institutional platform for liquidity and debt management support, the creation of a borrower-focused platform to elevate the voice of developing countries, and the initiation of an intergovernmental process under the UN to address gaps in the existing debt architecture.
The Minister informed the global audience that Pakistan, despite facing multiple external shocks ranging from pandemics to climate-induced disasters, is undertaking robust domestic reforms to align with global aspirations. He outlined Pakistan's new five-year National Economic Transformation Plan, titled 'Uraan Pakistan,' which rests on five pillars: Exports, E-Pakistan, Environment, Energy & Infrastructure, and Equity.
He noted that through consistent macroeconomic measures, Pakistan has achieved a primary budget surplus, reduced inflation, and lowered its debt-to-GDP ratio. Further, the country is enhancing domestic resource mobilisation through tax base expansion, digitalisation of tax administration, and improvements in public financial management, with a goal to raise the tax-to-GDP ratio to over 13% in the medium term.
Senator Muhammad Aurangzeb also highlighted Pakistan's efforts in expanding access to green and Islamic finance, deepening financial inclusion through digital infrastructure, and attracting foreign direct investment through a new investment policy and the Special Investment Facilitation Council. These efforts, he emphasized, reflect Pakistan's determination to transform policy into performance, despite external constraints.
Earlier in the day, Senator Aurangzeb co-chaired the Multi-Stakeholder Roundtable 2 on 'Leveraging Private Business and Finance' alongside Canadian Deputy Minister of International Development, Mr. Christopher MacLennan. The session examined how private finance, innovation, and investment can be more effectively mobilized for sustainable development and economic resilience.
In his opening statement, Senator Aurangzeb emphasized that public resources alone cannot bridge the vast financing gap and that private finance—when combined with sound public policy—holds the key to unlocking development at scale. He called for decisive actions to improve domestic resource mobilisation, deepen capital markets with SDG-linked instruments, and create policy environments that attract and de-risk private capital in critical sectors such as climate resilience, housing, and SME finance.
The Finance Minister highlighted the importance of regulatory coherence, predictability, and targeted incentives to enable private investment. He stressed the need to mainstream mechanisms such as credit guarantees, outcome-linked bonds, debt-for-climate swaps, and catalytic first-loss instruments, urging that public funds should be used strategically to leverage greater volumes of private and philanthropic capital.
In his closing remarks at the roundtable, Senator Aurangzeb reinforced that the objective must be to mobilize not just more finance but smarter and fairer finance. He outlined clear action points at both national and global levels, including institutional strengthening, aligning fiscal policies with SDG priorities, and reforming credit rating methodologies to reflect climate vulnerabilities and development trajectories.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2025
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Express Tribune
4 hours ago
- Express Tribune
Empty chairs mar UN's flagship event
Brutal heat scorched Spain this week, a blistering reminder of the climate change that is battering the world's poorest countries — stretching their finances even as government debt climbs to new heights. But at a once-a-decade UN development finance conference in Seville, two key ingredients were in less abundance: money and power. Just one G7 leader — France's Emmanuel Macron — attended the event, where he and Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez addressed rooms with dozens of empty chairs. Organisers initially said they expected 70 heads of state; that was whittled to 50 as the conference got under way. Back in Washington, Paris, London and Berlin, rich-country leaders are slashing aid and cutting bilateral lending in a pivot to defence spending and rising debt at home. "The mood is ... I would say realistic, but also a sense of unity and of pragmatism," said Alvaro Lario, president of the International Fund of Agricultural Development, adding the question on everyone's mind this week was how to do more with less. "How can we come together, or think out of the box, or create new types of ways of really stretching it more?" The Financing For Development meeting is a flagship UN conference, charting the trajectory to help tackle changes the world must make to tax policies, aid spending or key areas such as debt, health and education. Its outcomes guide global aid funding and UN policies for the decade to come. Empty chairs, missing leaders Few disagree over the need for action. Hundred-year floods and storms are happening with alarming regularity, and rising debt-servicing costs are siphoning money away from health, education and infrastructure spending in the developing world.
Express Tribune
4 hours ago
- Express Tribune
IAEA pulls inspectors from Iran
The UN nuclear watchdog said on Friday it had pulled its last remaining inspectors from Iran as a standoff over their return to the country's nuclear facilities bombed by the United States and Israel deepens. Israel launched its first military strikes on Iran's nuclear sites in a 12-day war with the Islamic Republic three weeks ago. The International Atomic Energy Agency's inspectors have not been able to inspect Iran's facilities since then, even though IAEA chief Rafael Grossi has said that is his top priority. Iran's parliament has now passed a law to suspend cooperation with the IAEA until the safety of its nuclear facilities can be guaranteed. While the IAEA says Iran has not yet formally informed it of any suspension, it is unclear when the agency's inspectors will be able to return to Iran. "An IAEA team of inspectors today safely departed from Iran to return to the Agency headquarters in Vienna, after staying in Tehran throughout the recent military conflict," the IAEA said on X. Diplomats said the number of IAEA inspectors in Iran was reduced to a handful after the June 13 start of the war. Some have also expressed concern about the inspectors' safety since the end of the conflict, given fierce criticism of the agency by Iranian officials and Iranian media. Iran has accused the agency of effectively paving the way for the bombings by issuing a damning report on May 31 that led to a resolution by the IAEA's 35-nation Board of Governors declaring Iran in breach of its non-proliferation obligations. IAEA chief Rafael Grossi has said he stands by the report. He has denied it provided diplomatic cover for military action. IAEA wants talks Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said on Thursday Iran remained committed to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). "(Grossi) reiterated the crucial importance of the IAEA discussing with Iran modalities for resuming its indispensable monitoring and verification activities in Iran as soon as possible," the IAEA said. The US and Israeli military strikes either destroyed or badly damaged Iran's three uranium enrichment sites. But it was less clear what has happened to much of Iran's nine tonnes of enriched uranium, especially the more than 400 kg enriched to up to 60% purity, a short step from weapons grade. That is enough, if enriched further, for nine nuclear weapons, according to an IAEA yardstick. Iran says its aims are entirely peaceful but Western powers say there is no civil justification for enriching to such a high level, and the IAEA says no country has done so without developing the atom bomb. As a party to the NPT, Iran must account for its enriched uranium, which normally is closely monitored by the IAEA, the body that enforces the NPT and verifies countries' declarations. But the bombing of Iran's facilities has now muddied the waters. "We cannot afford that .... the inspection regime is interrupted," Grossi told a press conference in Vienna last week.
Business Recorder
5 hours ago
- Business Recorder
Nuclear inspectors have left Iran: UN watchdog
VIENNA: UN nuclear watchdog inspectors left Iran on Friday, according to the agency, which called for the resumption of its 'indispensable monitoring' after the Islamic republic officially suspended its cooperation. The suspension came after last month's 12-day conflict between Iran and Israel, which saw unprecedented Israeli and US strikes on Iran's nuclear facilities and escalated tensions between Tehran and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). 'An IAEA team of inspectors today safely departed from Iran to return to the agency headquarters in Vienna, after staying in Tehran throughout the recent military conflict,' the IAEA said in a post on X. 'IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi reiterated the crucial importance of the IAEA discussing with Iran modalities for resuming its indispensable monitoring and verification activities in Iran as soon as possible,' it added. Iran officially suspended its cooperation with the UN nuclear watchdog on Wednesday. On June 25, a day after a ceasefire took hold, Iranian lawmakers voted overwhelmingly to suspend the cooperation. The law aims to 'ensure full support for the inherent rights of the Islamic Republic of Iran' under the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, with a particular focus on uranium enrichment, according to Iranian media. Washington, which has been pressing Tehran to resume the negotiations that were interrupted by Israel's resort to military action on June 13, has hit out at the Iranian decision, calling it 'unacceptable'.
