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Least developed countries need a large flow of foreign direct investment to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals, said the International Chamber of Commerce-Bangladesh (ICCB) yesterday.
“FDI has an important role to play in helping achieve the UN 2030 Agenda,” it said.
FDI can also accelerate wealth and technological transfer between the developing and the developed countries.
However, mobilising sufficient financing is the major challenge to achieving the SDGs. Although interests in inclusive and sustainable financing are growing from both public and private sectors, the most needed investment for SDGs-related projects remains underfunded, the chamber said.
“In order to achieve the 2030 Agenda, the international community must embark on a path of collective efforts, including providing support to many developing countries to increase investment in numerous fields.”
Both upgrading and diversifying productive capacities and advancing communication, energy and transportation infrastructure remain priorities. Several countries, especially the LDCs are heavily reliant on international assistance to advance these efforts, it said.
It is estimated that the total annual financing needed to reach the SDGs would range between $4.6 trillion and $7.9 trillion at the global level. The total annual investment gap in key sustainable development sectors is estimated to be at $2.5 trillion by the UNCTAD and many countries must double their current infrastructure investment levels. “Given the fragility of investment in many developing economies, meeting these daunting targets requires stable and steady flows of investment finance,” the ICCB said in its news bulletin for April-June.
The United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific has estimated that financing SDGs would require an additional investment of $1.5 trillion per year, or an average of 5 percent of GDP in the Asia-Pacific region. For the LDCs in the region, the challenge is even bigger as they each require 16 percent of the GDP to finance the SDGs.
“This clearly suggests that in addition to national efforts, the region needs to strengthen its regional cooperation to facilitate the achievement of the SDGs through adequate financial resource mobilisation among all countries in the region,” the chamber said.
“Financing SDGs would also need unprecedented coordination and cooperation between the public and private sectors, facilitated by multilateral development banks.”
source-DS