Unlock regional savings to finance sustainable development: UN

“Investments in sustainable development could cost as much as $2.5 trillion per year to close the region’s infrastructure gaps, provide universal access to social protection, health, and education, and implement measures to mitigate climate change,” Dr. Shamshad Akhtar, United Nations Under-Secretary-General and ESCAP Executive Secretary said in her presentation to leading figures in the public, private and civil society sectors from more than 30 countries.

“But this amount represents only 7.5 per cent of the $33 trillion held by affluent individuals in the region at the end of 2012,” she explained. “Governments now have to look beyond their own revenues and tap private sector involvement in the social and environmental sectors, by creating a better enabling environment and incentivizing appropriately to compensate for risks and returns.”