President Tebboune Calls for International Financial System Reconsideration

SEVILLE (Spain)- The Algerian President, Abdelmadjid Tebboune, expressed his hope that the 4th International Conference on Financing for Development (FfD4) in Seville, Spain, would mark a renewed collective commitment to advancing toward a new era of effective multilateral action through the adoption of bold and actionable recommendations for a reconsideration of the international financial system, which is no longer adapted to the profound transformations that today’s world is experiencing.

In an address read on his behalf Tuesday by Prime Minister Nadir Larbaoui to the participants in the FfD4, the President emphasized that these transformations and challenges are intensifying due to the widening development gap between countries, the growing debt burden, the economic impact of climate change repercussions on several countries, and the escalation of conflicts and wars, including developments in the Middle East, particularly in the occupied Palestine and devastated Gaza, where the Palestinian people face genocide while struggling to establish their independent state with al-Quds as its capital.

This legitimate aspiration is justified by the injustices endured by the African continent, which remains burdened by arduous challenges stemming from scarce development financing sources and the worsening of the debt burden, notably because of  debt servicing costs and its interests which are five times higher than the amounts obtained from multilateral development banks, which compromises the effectiveness of its development efforts and leads it into a spiral marked by rising financing costs, declining investment capital and limited structural transformation, thus reducing its capacity to guarantee stability and to contribute, at the required level, to the achievement of common well-being, said the President of the Republic.

The external debt crisis, he noted, represents one of the primary impediments facing African nations, with the continent’s external debt having exceeded US1.15 trillion, which makes imperative to launch urgent global initiatives to address the debt issue through decisive measures, including debt burden relief and total exemption for certain countries.

In this regard, the President of the Republic expressed his conviction that the multilateral system must be grounded in the principles of justice and equity that serve the interests of all the member States of the United Nations without exception, emphasizing the critical need to restructure the global financial architecture while ensuring meaningful participation by developing countries in the governance of international financial institutions, so that decision-making frameworks reflect the realities of our multipolar world and guarantee equitable access to development financing for all countries.

The President of the Republic underlined his support for the creation of a UN working framework aimed at remedying the flaws in the debt structure and proposing practical and equitable options to address the issue of debt sustainability.

He also called to reach urgent solutions to the biased financial rating that impose significant costs on several African countries, by adopting more transparent and more equitable rating methods, welcoming, in this regard, the creation of an independent African financial rating agency.