Criticism of industrialized countries: UN chief calls for 500 billion dollars for poor countries

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UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres

Photo: Hadi Mizban/AP

UN Secretary-General António Guterres has accused the world's rich countries of slowing down poor countries with "predatory" interest rates.

At a summit meeting of the least developed countries in Doha on Saturday, he called for aid of around 500 billion US dollars (around 470 billion euros) from the rich countries.

This should help the poorest countries in the world who are "caught in vicious circles".

"Economic development is difficult when countries are resource deprived, drowning in debt and still grappling with the historical injustice of an unequal response to Covid-19," Guterres said.

The world's poorest countries have repeatedly criticized an unequal distribution of corona vaccines.

Capital costs for investments too high

Fighting a climate catastrophe that is essentially not caused by poorer countries is also a "challenge when the cost of capital is sky high" and the financial aid received is "a drop in the ocean," said the UN Secretary-General.

The "fossil energy giants" are making "huge profits while millions of people in their countries cannot put food on the table."

The global financial system was designed by the wealthy countries - "largely to their advantage," said Guterres.

Without liquidity, many of the poorer countries would be "locked out of the capital markets by predatory interest rates."

The summit of the 46 least developed countries usually takes place every ten years.

Because of the corona pandemic, it has been postponed twice since 2021.

However, two of the poorest countries, Afghanistan and Myanmar, are not taking part in the meeting because their governments are not recognized by the UN member states.

The Taliban took power again in Afghanistan in 2021.

Myanmar is ruled by a military junta.

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