Pakistan for boosting infrastructure investment in COVID-hit poorer countries

NEW YORK: The president of UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), Pakistan’s Ambassador Munir Akram has said he believes the creation of a public-private facility under UN’s umbrella could provide adequate financing for infrastructure investment in coronavirus-hit developing countries to spur economic development.

“Such a facility would be a useful supplement to the efforts being made in other platforms to mobilise investment aligned with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs),” he told members of the Paris-based Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) Monday. The investment needs of developing countries for sustainable infrastructure was estimated at $1 trillion each year, ECOSOC chief told members of the OECD in his keynote address, pointing out that the existing platforms were not yet to able to generate sufficient investments.

Underlining that COVID-19 crisis had severely knocked back the aspirations to achieve the SDGs by 2030 in the developing countries, especially in the poorest amongst them; the Pakistani envoy said the recession was deep, inequality on the rise, and financial gap growing. Highlighting Prime Minister Imran Khan’s initiative for debt relief in April, ambassador Munir Akram welcomed the temporary suspension of debt by Group of 20 (industrialised countries) that brought “breathing space” to the developing countries.