Foreign Desk Report
NEW YORK: The president of UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), Pakistan’s Ambassador Munir Akram, has urged the global community to support efforts to mobilize public and private investment in coronavirus-hit developing countries to spur economic development.
“I believe that the United Nations can play a key role in accelerating private investments for sustainable infrastructure,” he told a panel of experts who held a meeting on the sidelines of the high-level ECOSOC’s forum on Financing for Development.
The panel discussed ‘Accelerating infrastructure investments for a sustainable and resilient recovery and restoring trade.’
In his opening remarks, the ECOSOC chief said the U.N. could help boost the investments by facilitating greater coordination between governments, donors, development finance institutions and the private sector on policy issues, as well as the development of a pipeline of bankable projects.
Ambassador Akram said he therefore proposed the establishment of a sustainable infrastructure investment facility under the auspices of the United Nations, to act as a facilitator in promoting sustainable infrastructure investment.
In this regard, he said one mechanism already exists under the United Nations rubric the SDG Investment Fair under whose framework governments present specific projects and concrete investment opportunities to the investor community.
“I would suggest that this could be turned into a standing forum that is convened to bring together, investors and governments with bankable projects,” the ECOSOC chief said.
“The Fair can serve as an umbrella platform to bring together all other platforms for a coordinated and coherent approach,” he said adding it should include both the UN and non-UN platforms, the private sectors, and other stakeholders.”
Ambassador Akram said that achieving the goal of net zero carbon emissions by 2050 would require a global transformation in infrastructure, energy, transportation, housing, communications, as well as the industrial and agricultural production modules of all countries.
According to estimates, between 100 to $120 trillion were required to be invested over the next 30 years in sustainable infrastructure. Eighty-three percent of the current investment in infrastructure is publicly funded, according to World Bank figures.
