The 9th annual ministerial meeting of the Group of Middle-Income Countries (PRI) held in New York concluded its work which took place under the chairmanship of the Minister of Foreign Affairs, African Cooperation and Moroccans Abroad , Nasser Bourita.
This meeting, which took place on the sidelines of the 79th session of the United Nations General Assembly, was marked by the adoption of a ministerial declaration reiterating the priorities and demands of member countries in terms of development cooperation.
Middle-income countries are home to 75% of the world’s population and two-thirds of people living in extreme poverty. They represent nearly 30% of global GDP. They are divided into two categories according to their Gross National Income (GNI) per capita: The MICs of the lower bracket (whose GNI per capita is between 1146 and 4515 dollars), and the MICs of the upper bracket (whose GNI per capita is between 1146 and 4515 dollars), and the MICs of the upper bracket (whose GNI per capita is between per capita is between 4516 and 14005 dollars).
As a diverse group, middle-income countries face common challenges in their quest for sustainable development and improving the living standards of their populations. The middle income trap is a major challenge for this category of countries. This is a situation where countries struggle to achieve a high level of income despite having been in the middle-income group for long periods of time.
+ Call for a paradigm shift in international cooperation for the development of PRIs +
MICs urgently need access to adequate and affordable financing to create decent jobs, engage in the green transition and meet the socio-economic needs of their populations. However, in the context of the current multiple crises, their fiscal space has been considerably reduced, which constitutes a major obstacle to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals.
Initiated in 2007, the institutionalization of the PRI category within the UN led in 2016 to the creation of the “Like-Minded Group of Countries Supporters of Middle-Income Countries”.
Their advocacy resulted in the adoption of several resolutions by the United Nations General Assembly expressing the needs and concerns of middle-income countries as well as the challenges they face.
As part of its presidency of the PRI Group for the year 2023, Morocco organized, on the sidelines of the 78th session of the United Nations General Assembly, the 8th ministerial meeting of this Group, which was crowned by a Ministerial declaration.
Morocco also co-organized with the ECA and the UNDP, the high-level ministerial conference on middle-income countries, last February in Rabat, with the participation of members of the Group and the 28 middle-income Africans, as well as key multilateral stakeholders.
This conference was culminated by the adoption of the “Rabat Ministerial Declaration”, by which the participants launched an appeal to bring about a paradigm shift in international cooperation in favor of the development of the PRI and the implementation a fair, equitable and inclusive international financial architecture that supports sustainable development and the financing needs of all countries. Participants also called for the creation of a high-level expert group responsible for developing multidimensional indicators that complement GNP.
Article19.ma
Related News :