President of the United Nations Economic and Social Council,
Excellencies,
Distinguished delegates,

I have the honor to deliver this statement on behalf of the Group of 77 and China.

Excellencies,

The Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development will be held at the time when developing countries continue to face rising Sustainable Development Goals financing gap estimated between USD 2.5 trillion and 4 trillion annually. This is compounded with inter alia the elevated debt burdens, limited fiscal space and adverse impacts of climate change which undermine the efforts of developing countries to achieve sustainable development. The G77 and China emphasizes that the conference should agree on the set of concrete actions to address this high financing gap in developing countries. Therefore, this conference should build on the commitments agreed upon in the previous three conferences and agree on new commitments to support developing countries in their national development goals.

Excellencies,

The G77 and China believes that the fourth conference on financing for development should achieve key priorities that, include inter alia:

- Accelerate progress on the urgent reform of the international financial architecture, and multilateral development bank governance reform, particularly the IMF and the World Bank, to address the financing needs of developing countries and strengthen their voice, representation and participation in international decision making, norm setting and global economic governance;
- Mobilization and provision of additional financing by multilateral development banks within their mandates to support developing countries to achieve sustainable development, including through securing increases to grants and concessional finance as well as better leveraging of their capital bases;
- Accelerate progress on the reform of the IMF Quota and voting rights on quota realignment and increasing voting shares of developing countries at the IMF as well suspension of the surcharge policy by the IMF considering that the existing structure of surcharges operates procyclically and inequitablly since it leaves the most distressed countries bearing the heaviest financial burdens;
- Renewal of commitments from developed countries to fully meet their development finance commitments, including ODA commitments as it is imperative to address the impact of declining ODA as a challenge for both development and financing;
- Accelerate progress on urgent reform of the global sovereign debt architecture to address the debt crisis faced by developing countries with their meaningful participation, allowing for fair, balanced, and development-oriented treatment;
- Accelerate progress on measures to scale up the use of debt swaps for SDGs, including for climate, nature and food;
- Accelerate progress on the voluntary rechanneling of unutilized Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) to developing countries as well as the new allocation of the SDRs;
- Urgent establishment of measures of progress that complement or go beyond GDP to better measure sustainable development and to have a more inclusive approach to international cooperation, which should inform access to concessional and non-concessional finance, technical cooperation, and financing in a fair and inclusive manner;
- Accelerate progress on the improvement of the multilateral trading system;
- Prevent and combat illicit financial flows that drain resources from developing countries;
- Strengthen international tax cooperation to ensure its inclusivity and effectiveness through the negotiation and adoption of the UN Framework Convention on International Tax Cooperation;
- Support productive capacities building for diversified, resilient, and sustainable economies in developing countries;
- Support domestic public resources mobilization, and investments in infrastructure, connectivity, education, skills- training, and capacity-building, including for national statistical systems in developing countries;
- Address the Unilateral Coercive Measures as they impede the full achievement of economic and social development in developing countries, and;
- Support technology transfer from Developed to Developing countries in line with the 2030 Agenda.

Excellencies,

The upcoming conference should accelerate progress on the implementation of the 2023 Sustainable Development Goals Summit Political Declaration to support the realization of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. We firmly believe that the conference should equally accelerate progress by taking appropriate actions to implement the United Nations Secretary General's proposal for an SDG Stimulus for developing countries.

Finally, the G77 and China emphasizes that the fourth international conference should strengthen international cooperation to support actions that adequately address the financing challenges of developing countries and contribute to the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development in which no country or person is left behind. The political commitment and will to take urgent actions to address financing for development remain critical in accelerating actions at levels to achieve the SDGs whose progress remains offtrack.

I thank you.