Mr. President of the General Assembly,
Excellencies, Ladies and gentlemen,
I wish to thank the PGA for organizing this high-level meeting today to deliberate on the challenges faced by Middle-Income countries (MICs) further exacerbated by the pandemic.
Mr. President,
MICs are home to almost 70 per cent of the global poor.
Well before the pandemic, it was recognized that they face significant challenges to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals and adopt the 2030 Agenda. Many of them have been hard hit by the pandemic.
Remittance flows to low- and middle-income countries are expected to decline by $109 billion in 2020, or 19.7%, relative to 2019. 270 million people in low- and middle-income countries expected to face acute food insecurity by the end of 2020.
Additionally, crippling debt, global economic inequalities and vulnerability to the effects of climate change and natural disasters, stunt prospects for growth in the lower echelon of middle income countries.
Mr. President,
If we are to build back better from the pandemic our first priority should be equitable access to the COVID-19 vaccine for all. Intellectual Property Rights and export controls should not prevent countries from saving lives.
Second, the biggest challenge lies in access to affordable and concessional financing and debt relief for these countries.
Middle income countries‘ ratio of total external debt service to exports; a useful indicator of trends in debt and repayment capacity, rose from 14.7% in 2019 to 17.5% in 2020, the highest level since 2005.
The G-20 DSSI and the Common Framework for Debt Treatments are welcome. However, access to this and other support is still based on income criteria, which prevents middle-income countries from benefiting from them. Resultantly, more than forty percent of the MICs have been excluded from many forms of assistance for pandemic response.
Of those eligible, only half of the middle income countries are participating due to the fear of downgrading by credit rating agencies that might result in the loss of access to private external financing.
Also, DSSI alone would not be sufficient.
Clearly, concessional finance, debt relief and restructuring, with the participation of all bilateral, multilateral and private creditors are required to augment efforts by these countries to overcome their multifaceted challenges.
It is thus imperative that we recognize multiple dimensions of the vulnerabilities of MICs, in the criteria for accessing concessional resources of finance.
Third, digital divide is increasingly turning into a new face of development divide. Technology transfer and bridging the digital divide would be key for developing countries to leapfrog in this domain.
Finally, the time is now for the UN Development System, the international community, the global economic ecosystem and the private sector to come together in support of the efforts of MICs.
I thank you
Ends
Says a statement/press release received here today from New York.
