Launch of the G20 Compendium on Promoting Investment for Sustainable Development (Bali Compendium)

Statement by Rebeca Grynspan, Secretary-General of UNCTAD

Dear Bahlil Lahadalia, Minister of Investment, Indonesia, Excellencies,

Ladies and gentlemen, Dear friends,

It is an immense pleasure to celebrate with you the launch of the Bali Compendium on Policy Practices in Promoting Sustainable Investment, prepared by the G20 Indonesian Presidency and UNCTAD.

I want to sincerely thank Indonesia for the trust placed in us to work with you. It has been an honour, an educational process, and a pleasure.

This compendium comes out at just the right time.

The world is in a context of cascading crises., cascading inequalities, and chronic instability.

Countries have almost no capacity left to cope with external shocks. Natural disasters. Public health emergencies. Rising interest rates.

And war.

These shocks have narrowed countries’ margin for investment. And yet, investment is more needed than ever – to deal with climate change, to recover inclusively, to meet the SDGs.

When we adopted the 2030 Agenda in 2015, the investment gap was already high,

$2.5 trillion.

But with climate change, the COVID pandemic, and the war in Ukraine, the investment gap now stands closer to four trillion dollars.

In fact, these crises have now more than undone the increase in SDG investment we have witnessed since 2015.

This Compendium offers intelligent solutions for the investment challenges we face.

It represents a rich compilation of relevant experiences on Sustainable Investment Promotion from all G20 members and several associated countries; experiences from which we all can learn, despite the fact – or indeed, because of the fact – that there are no one-size-fits-all solutions.

It is important to look at diverse approaches to come up with one that is most appropriate for each local context.

Our compendium seeks to help policymakers not only in promoting more investment in sustainable development, but in promoting the right kind of investment for sustainable development.

Not all investments are equally beneficial. Investments that help the few while the rest are left at the margin of global value chains are neither desirable nor economically tenable in the long run.

Sustainable investments should bring a truly equitable, resilient, and inclusive development for all.

This requires investment strategies, policies and initiatives that support the enhancement of local productive capacities, promote value addition, and create significant links between international companies and domestic firms, particularly SMEs.

Lastly, our compendium also seeks to galvanize action towards overcoming the barriers to investment we all face, in terms of the structural asymmetries of the international financial system.

For example, the decline of multilateral development finance as a percentage of GDP in the Global South. The absence of a structured multilateral mechanism for debt. The lack of ESG going towards emerging markets. As well as the decline in foreign reserve accumulation in developing countries, capital flight in times of stress the increase of interest rates in its repercussion on investments, and short-termism in financial markets.

All these issues are part of the problem of investment promotion and must therefore also be part of the solution.

Excellencies,

Indonesia, a country that has managed to attract foreign investment, mobilize its own domestic resources, develop its industrial base, and overcome commodity dependence – is perhaps the perfect partner to have written this compendium with.

Dear Minister Lahadalia, thank you again for all your support, your wealth of knowledge, and your sense of solidarity with the rest of the developing world.

It has been an honour to contribute to this collective effort. And from a distance but with fondness, I celebrate this launch with you.

Thank you.