United Nations Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, has urged G20 leaders to use their influence to tackle trade barriers that consistently place developing countries, especially in Africa, at a disadvantage.

He made these comments while speaking to the media in Johannesburg ahead of the G20 summit, which kicks off tomorrow at the Nasrec Expo Centre.

Several heads of state have already arrived for the summit, while others are still expected to join.

Guterres also called on the G20 leaders to fulfill the commitments made at the Financing for Development conference in Sevilla.

“I will also urge G20 members to live up to the commitments made in June, to unlock more finance for developing countries; to triple the lending power of multilateral development banks; and to increase their role in leveraging more private finance; to ease debt burdens with new instruments to reduce borrowing costs and risks and speed up support for countries facing debt distress and drawing on recommendations from my debt expert group; to help developing countries strengthen their capacity to mobilise domestic resources and to build trade bridges, not trade barriers,” explains Guterres.

Source link