The Platform will create a permanent space for peer exchange so that countries can enter negotiations armed with information and experiences gained from countries that traveled a similar path.

And it’s important also to take into account that no one size fits all. Many of the countries around this table have different dimensions and different kinds of depths. It’s important that those experiences are also shared. And it’s important that all situations are taken into account when in the work of the Borrowers Platform.

Second — the Platform will give borrowers the tools to engage with creditors on equal terms.

Developing countries can arrive at negotiating tables informed and armed with positions backed by shared analysis and collective experience.

When both sides of the table are well informed and well prepared, negotiations move faster and the agreements take shape.

Third — the Platform will send the clear market signal to creditors.

Better debt management, better data and better transparency directly affect our markets perceived risk. When borrowers strengthen their practices collectively, learning from one another, the signal reaches investors. Transparency, strength and certainty, which can lower borrowing costs and provide fiscal space to invest in development.

And fourth — the Platform gives borrowing countries something they have lacked until now: a collective voice within the global debt architecture.

It is another step toward the global debt system that places borrowers at the center of discussions that determine their futures and ensure their perspectives are coordinated, informed and heard. At a deeper level, the Platform reflects the reality of today’s world.

Developing countries are rising economic actors. Their influence is growing. And global governance must adapt accordingly. There is one thing that I’ve been telling developed countries and that is the following: if you look at the G7 in every single day, the G7 has a smaller share of the global economy than in the day before. And if you look at the emerging economies, some of them sitting in this meeting, every single day, the group of the emerging economies has a share of global GDP that is higher than in the day before. And this change is a structural change and this change will help transform the power relations that have until now prevailed.

Indeed, developing countries are rising economic actors, their influence is growing and global governance must adapt accordingly. This Platform does not substitute for reform of the international financial architecture, but it makes the case for it even clearer.

Last July, Member States agreed to rev-up the engine of financing for developing countries to the Sevilla Commitment. The Commitment and the Platform we are launching today — along with other key initiatives, including the High-Level Expert Group on Beyond GDP to offer new ways to measure progress and well-being — all recognize a critical truth. In the end, the cost of finance is not measured only in balance sheets. It’s measured in hospitals and schools.

In food, water and sanitation. In jobs, social protection and housing. In transport systems and resilient infrastructure. And it’s measured in people’s lives.

The Borrowers Platform cannot generate solutions that allow countries to invest in these fundamentals — and to do so on fairer, more sustainable terms.

I’m deeply encouraged by the energy and commitment behind this initiative and I call on every eligible country to join.

And I offer my full support as the Borrowers Platform moves from the launchpad to take-off.

Thank you and I wish you the best success.

(Excerpts of United Nations Secretary‑General António Guterres’ remarks on the launch of the Borrowers’ Platform in Washington D.C. United States, on 15 April 2026.)