Ministers of the Intergovernmental Group of Twenty-Four (G-24) called on rich countries on Friday to take concrete action to ensure that the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) will be met.

In a communique after its 74th meeting held before the annual joint meeting of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank, G-24 ministers noted the lack of progress towards achieving the MDGs and reiterated the urgent need to take concrete action to ensure that these goals will be met.

"Achieving the MDGs by 2015 will require a significant increase in the level of aid and financing available to low income countries, as well as a scaling up of investment in these countries to increase growth," the communique said.

Ministers stressed that a rapid and frontloaded increase in official development assistance for poor countries is critically important.

G-24 ministers also noted that many heavily indebted poor countries (HIPCs) continue to face substantial debt burdens and called on the IMF and the World Bank to facilitate the HIPC process by placing more weight on country-specific circumstances and further streamlining conditionality for HIPCs in order to promote faster progress toward debt relief.

They also called for strengthened fiscal adjustment in the United States, stepped-up structural reform in Europe and Japan, increased exchange rate flexibility and financial sector reform in Asia, and an improvement in the business climate in emerging market and other developing countries to increase investment.

Ministers welcomed the efforts of oil-producing countries to stabilize the oil market and called for improved oil market data and transparency, continued cooperation between oil-importing and oil-exporting countries, increased investment in refinery capacity and efforts to promote alternative energy sources.

The Intergovernmental Group of Twenty-four on International Monetary Affairs and Development consists of 24 developing countries.

Source: Xinhua