Pakistan to chair G-24 as Aurangzeb pledges to strengthen Global South voice

Pakistan will chair the Intergovernmental Group of Twenty-Four, the bloc of developing economies that coordinates positions ahead of IMF and World Bank meetings, and Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb says he will use the tenure to press for a louder Global South voice in the institutions that set global financial policy.

Aurangzeb set out his priorities in a virtual briefing with Dr Iyabo Masha, director of the G-24 Secretariat, who walked him through the group's structure, its policy and research work and its engagement with international financial institutions. Saif Ullah Dogar, senior adviser to the IMF executive director, also took part, the finance ministry said. The minister said Pakistan would build on previous chairmanships with an agenda centred on policy coordination, consensus-building and engagement among members.

At the top of that agenda sit reform of the global monetary and financial system, access to affordable development financing and measures to make emerging economies more resilient. Aurangzeb argued that the priorities of developing countries must get adequate weight in the deliberations and decisions of international financial institutions, and that greater representation should come with constructive engagement and practical proposals able to win wider consensus.

He pointed to growing global uncertainty, geopolitical and geoeconomic fragmentation, persistent financing gaps and mounting pressure on developing nations as reasons the group needs an agenda that answers new challenges without abandoning its long-standing development priorities. Effective multilateral cooperation, adequate and affordable financing, stronger resilience and more room for trade, investment and economic integration were the areas he named for sustained attention.

A centrepiece of the chairmanship will be the G-24 Technical Group Meeting, which Pakistan expects to host in February 2027. Aurangzeb called for early planning, broad participation and substantive policy discussion so the meeting gives a strong analytical base for later ministerial talks, and said Pakistan would keep consulting members and the secretariat to turn shared priorities into actionable proposals.