SEVILLE, (Spain): Federal Minister for Finance and Revenue, Senator Muhammad Aurangzeb, represented Pakistan at the plenary session of the Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development (FFD4) held in Seville, Spain.
The conference, convened to address the widening gap in financing for sustainable development, served as a global platform for countries to present national perspectives and outline their contributions and expectations regarding sustainable development financing.
In his address to the conference, Senator Aurangzeb articulated Pakistan’s priorities, challenges, and reform efforts, while calling for urgent and coordinated global action to strengthen the international financial architecture in line with the principles of equity, solidarity, and inclusivity.
Global economic reforms demanded
The Finance Minister acknowledged the scale of global challenges currently facing developing countries and pointed to a confluence of pressures—deepening debt vulnerabilities, accelerating climate impacts, and the reversal of hard-won development gains—that have further widened the global SDG financing gap.
He stressed that while the Monterrey, Doha, and Addis Ababa conferences laid the foundations of a more inclusive global financial system, much remains to be done to translate those commitments into effective mechanisms that deliver tangible support to countries most in need.
Senator Aurangzeb welcomed the renewed resolve demonstrated through the ‘Compromiso de Sevilla’ and appreciated its practical and forward-looking proposals. These include pledges to double support for domestic resource mobilisation, reverse aid cuts, increase concessional financing through new metrics beyond GDP, expand the lending capacity of multilateral development banks, scale up local currency lending, and re-channel unutilised Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) through structured frameworks.
He called for early implementation of these commitments, particularly in the area of debt reform, including the establishment of an institutional platform for liquidity and debt management support, the creation of a borrower-focused platform to elevate the voice of developing countries, and the initiation of an intergovernmental process under the UN to address gaps in the existing debt architecture.
The Minister informed the global audience that Pakistan, despite facing multiple external shocks ranging from pandemics to climate-induced disasters, is undertaking robust domestic reforms to align with global aspirations. He outlined Pakistan’s new five-year National Economic Transformation Plan, titled ‘Uraan Pakistan,’ which rests on five pillars: Exports, E-Pakistan, Environment, Energy & Infrastructure, and Equity.
He noted that through consistent macroeconomic measures, Pakistan has achieved a primary budget surplus, reduced inflation, and lowered its debt-to-GDP ratio. Further, the country is enhancing domestic resource mobilisation through tax base expansion, digitalisation of tax administration, and improvements in public financial management, with a goal to raise the tax-to-GDP ratio to over 13% in the medium term.
Senator Muhammad Aurangzeb also highlighted Pakistan’s efforts in expanding access to green and Islamic finance, deepening financial inclusion through digital infrastructure, and attracting foreign direct investment through a new investment policy and the Special Investment Facilitation Council. These efforts, he emphasized, reflect Pakistan’s determination to transform policy into performance, despite external constraints.
Earlier in the day, Senator Aurangzeb co-chaired the Multi-Stakeholder Roundtable 2 on “Leveraging Private Business and Finance” alongside Canadian Deputy Minister of International Development, Mr. Christopher MacLennan. The session examined how private finance, innovation, and investment can be more effectively mobilized for sustainable development and economic resilience.
In his opening statement, Senator Aurangzeb emphasized that public resources alone cannot bridge the vast financing gap and that private finance—when combined with sound public policy—holds the key to unlocking development at scale. He called for decisive actions to improve domestic resource mobilisation, deepen capital markets with SDG-linked instruments, and create policy environments that attract and de-risk private capital in critical sectors such as climate resilience, housing, and SME finance.
The Finance Minister highlighted the importance of regulatory coherence, predictability, and targeted incentives to enable private investment. He stressed the need to mainstream mechanisms such as credit guarantees, outcome-linked bonds, debt-for-climate swaps, and catalytic first-loss instruments, urging that public funds should be used strategically to leverage greater volumes of private and philanthropic capital.
In his closing remarks at the roundtable, Senator Aurangzeb reinforced that the objective must be to mobilize not just more finance but smarter and fairer finance. He outlined clear action points at both national and global levels, including institutional strengthening, aligning fiscal policies with SDG priorities, and reforming credit rating methodologies to reflect climate vulnerabilities and development trajectories.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2025
