President Cyril Ramaphosa arrives at the Palais Brogniart to attend the New Global Financial Pact Summit in Paris, France..
In a speech to be delivered on Thursday, new World Bank president Ajay Banga will outline a"toolkit", including offering a pause in debt repayments, giving countries the flexibility to redirect funds for emergency response, providing new types of insurance to help development projects and helping governments build advance-emergency systems.
Those institutions and many developed nations, notably the US, are resisting, arguing that acceding to Beijing's demand would be tantamount to a bailout for China. Chinese Prime Minister Li Qiang is due to speak at the summit on Friday.Citing the war in Ukraine, climate crisis, widening disparity and declining progress, leaders said the World Bank and other multilateral financial institutions needed a new vision.
The summit aims to create roadmaps that can be used over the next 18 to 24 months, ranging from debt relief to climate finance. Many of the topics on the agenda take up suggestions from a group of developing countries, led by Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley, dubbed the Bridgetown Initiative. Wealthy nations have yet to come good on climate finance that they promised as part of a past pledge to mobilise $100 billion a year, a key stumbling block at global climate talks.