PM Bainimarama Calls on SDG Business Forum to Pursue Greater Collaboration with SIDS

Prime Minister Josaia Voreqe Bainimarama today joined the 6th Annual SDG Business Forum held virtually along the margins of the 76th United Nations General Assembly in New York.

Prime Minister Bainimarama while participating for the first time at the Annual SDG Business Forum called on the Forum to work in partnership with the Small Island Developing States (SIDS) to advance Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The Forum seeks to sensitise some of the World’s largest private corporations to invest in achieving SDG global health and education goals. This cannot be left to official development assistance alone. The financial needs for achieving the SDG’s runs into trillions of dollars and yet this is only a small part of the funds that are available.

This virtual event co-hosted by the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN DESA), the UN Global Compact and the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC), has demonstrated a growing engagement by the private sector.

Prime Minister Bainimarama said the “global goals, the SDG’s is the opportunity of our lifetime and it is the foundation to ensure business continuity, market security and supply-chain stability in a world that will face unprecedented challenges in the decades to come”.

“The private sector’s role is far more than dollars and cents. It is about technology, innovation, knowledge, and delivery platforms that can drive the 2030 Agenda across markets from advanced countries, throughout the frontiers of the Global South, and towards small States, like Fiji.

“The problem is that developing nations have been left on the margins of the largest influx of capital in history. Trillions in stimulus has been injected into advanced economies that were already leaps and bounds ahead of us, while investment in our nations remained muted. Sustainable development progress has been the ultimate casualty of that unintended injustice,” PM Bainimarama said.

Reflecting on the many challenges that SIDS are faced with, PM Bainimarama said for nearly two years now, the buck has stopped with Governments to keep our economies afloat.

“We are exhausting every financial tool we have to prevent socio-economic catastrophe from consuming our countries. And we’ve been punished for it by a global financial system that empowers the wealthy and entrenches vulnerability. Small States –– due to inherent geographic and economic vulnerabilities –– are limping into the new normal, hobbled by antiquated measures of debt sustainability, high interest rates, and a lack of innovation in stagnant frameworks of development finance.”

Prime Minister Bainimarama said the Forum can signal a paradigm shift that sees Governments and the UN working hand-in-hand to de-risk private sector investments in the SDGS.

“A shift that signals certainty through access to concessional development finance and spurs investment that benefits the private sector and the planet; and a shift that brings the SDGS –– and the hope they represent –– back within our reach. Fiji and other Small Island Developing States are asking that climate finance be scaled up, at least two-fold, and made available on the basis of vulnerability. We are calling on multilateral financial institutions to develop ultra-long-term concessional financing arrangements.”

While calling on the SDG Business Forum to work closely with SIDS, Prime Minister Bainimarama spoke on the innovative actions taken by Fiji to deliver its commitment to advance SDGs.

“We support the development of a multidimensional vulnerability index that is fit for the purpose of addressing the structural challenges SIDS face- including the worsening impacts of climate change. To those joining us at the SDG Business Forum, my ask is simple: work with us.

“SIDS are incubating innovation that serves people and the planet and that can bring benefit any business bold enough to enlist alongside us. Fiji was one of the first developing countries to issue a Green Bond to bring in private sector investments to drive green ambition, including our 30 million tree planting commitment. And we intend to issue the first Blue Bond next year in support of a sustainable blue Fijian economy.”

“With the Green Climate Fund, we set up our first photovoltaic agricultural investment in partnership with the private sector. And we have also brought the private sector on-board with our urgent work to conserve our coral reefs and keep them not just alive, but pristine. Together with the UN’s SDG Fund, the UNCDF and the UNDP, we have launched the first parametric insurance scheme in the Pacific. We are relocating communities and building resilient infrastructure that protects the progress we have made from being swept away by climate change and climate-related disasters,” he said.

In conclusion, Prime Minister Bainimarama stated that by “blending finance and catalysing private sector investors, Fiji has shown that what makes sense for the environment, for people and for communities can make solid business sense as well”.

“So, our challenge to this forum is simple: Join us, and let’s get in the business of sustainable development together. Let’s put the SDGs back on track.”

Now in its sixth year, the SDG Business Forum is a flagship event which has transitioned well into the virtual era, securing more than 13,000 attendees from 120 countries in 2020. Past SDG Business Forums have fostered public-private dialogues, catalysed new partnerships and alliances, and explored innovative business solutions to accelerate sustainable development.

The Forum welcomed the innovative approaches deployed in Fiji. These provide significant lessons not only for the global private sector but also for other small states.