UN chief for more financial support to developing countries

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has urged the international community to support developing countries in creating conditions for mobilising domestic resources and attracting private investment.

In his remarks on Wednesday at the handover of the rotating chairmanship of the Group of 77 and China, the UN chief called on all developed countries to meet the commitments made in the Addis Ababa Action Agenda, including on official development assistance, Xinhua reported.

At the same time, the international community must take more effective steps to fight illicit flows of capital, money laundering and tax evasion, which continue to drain vital resources from the developing world, he added.

"Now is the time to generate greater public engagement, scalable solutions and higher ambition," said Guterres.

He said the change the world needs in poverty eradication, emissions reduction, employment creation or gender equality is "simply not happening at the speed or scale required to deliver the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030."

Guterres therefore highlighted the importance of work to advance issues that are key to sustainable development - including eradicating poverty, climate action, gender equality and reducing inequalities both within and between countries.

The G77, which got its name from 77 founding members, is a group of 133 developing countries at the UN.

China aligns itself with the group, whose aim is to promote collective economic interests of the members and to try to have a bigger say in the world organization.

Guyana took over the rotating chairmanship of the Group from Palestine, and it is slated to lead the bloc for 2020.