Speaker urges overhaul of global finance to unlock $1.3 trillion for developing countries

Unidentified Speaker opened the address to the Group of 77 in China and called for a transformation of the global financial system to reflect today’s realities and enable developing-country development.

"We need a global financial system that reflects today's realities, not the world of 1945," the speaker said, arguing that multilateral development banks should triple lending power and that private capital must be leveraged to scale accessible, long-term finance.

The speaker warned that mounting debt service is "suffocating investments in health, education, jobs, energy, and resilience," and urged "earlier, smarter action on debt distress with new instruments" that provide support before crises deepen. The speech also criticized outdated credit-trading and rating practices that raise borrowing costs for developing countries.

The address included a specific funding target: "We must chart a credible path to mobilizing 1,300,000,000,000.0 US dollars a year by 2035 for developing countries with finance that is accessible, affordable, predictable, and at scale," the speaker said.

Context and next steps: the remarks framed reform as a multilateral priority rather than an immediate binding decision: the speaker pressed member states and institutions to pursue governance changes at international financial institutions and to pilot new instruments for debt relief and prevention. No formal vote or binding action was recorded in the address.