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Excellencies,
Distinguished Delegates,

I thank the Philippines, as Chair of the Like-Minded Group for Middle-Income Countries, for convening this timely meeting, and for its leadership in advancing a Strategic Plan of Action for Middle-Income Countries.

This agenda concerns not a marginal group, but the centre of the global development endeavour.

Middle-income countries are home to three quarters of humanity. They generate about one third of global GDP, yet they also contain 62 per cent of the world’s poor. In Africa, 31 of 54 countries are middle-income countries, and nearly 200 million poor people live in them.

These figures expose the limits of averages. A country may cross an income threshold while millions of its people remain in poverty;

while debt service crowds out education and health;

while climate shocks erase years of progress; and

while access to concessional finance declines just as development challenges become more complex.

This is the middle-income trap: growth slows before prosperity is broadly secured. Over the past 34 years, only 34 middle-income economies have reached high-income status. Escaping the trap requires more than investment. It requires technological diffusion, innovation, productive transformation, stronger institutions, decent jobs and social mobility.

But middle-income countries should not be viewed only through the lens of vulnerability. Many are also middle powers: pragmatic coalition-builders and bridges between North and South.

Through South-South and triangular cooperation, knowledge exchange, technical assistance and innovative finance, they can help renew multilateralism and shape a more plural and effective development system.

Excellencies,

The central question is therefore not whether the international community should engage with middle-income countries, but how; and not when, but now.

The answer lies with the Strategic Plan of Action envisaged in the Rabat and Makati Declarations and recommended in the Secretary-General’s report A/80/418.

It needs to be practical, time-bound and implementation-focused; aligned with national strategies.

Consultations held throughout 2026 have identified areas of convergence. The Strategic Plan should translate them into country-driven results, aligning climate and development priorities, strengthening productive capacities and economic diversification, and investing in people: their skills, opportunities, infrastructure, and the digital and social resilience that enables communities to thrive.

It should advance productive capacities, sustainable industrialization, digital transformation, climate resilience, human development and stronger South-South and triangular cooperation.

It should also help mobilize partnerships across Governments, the UN system, international financial institutions, regional organizations, civil society and the private sector.

It must also reject GDP per capita as the sole measure of development need. GDP remains useful, but it cannot reveal inequality, vulnerability, resilience, well-being or environmental sustainability.

The Beyond GDP process offers an important opportunity to correct this blind spot. Building on the Expert Group’s proposed global dashboard, the intergovernmental process should advance a limited, credible and country-owned set of measures.

The objective is not to discard GDP, but to complement it so that policy, finance and technical cooperation are better informed.

Excellencies,

The Multidimensional Vulnerability Index is equally important. It captures structural exposure and resilience across economic, environmental and social dimensions and applies to all developing countries.

Its use must remain voluntary, and it must never restrict access to cooperation. As it is operationalized, it should fairly capture the priorities and concerns of all countries, while complementing, not replacing, existing measures.

During this session, I will also convene the General Assembly’s high-level meeting mandated by resolution 80/149 to advance the middle-income countries agenda and the Strategic Plan of Action.

I intend to appoint two co-chairs, one from the Global North and one from the Global South, to lead an inclusive, transparent and action-oriented preparatory process.

We already have a strong foundation in the Sevilla Commitment.

It calls for additional, affordable and accessible finance; enhanced fiscal space; lower capital costs; timely and fair debt solutions; greater lending by multilateral development banks; targeted investment facilitation for middle-income countries; and a more inclusive international financial architecture.

It also looks forward to a comprehensive, system-wide response plan for middle-income countries.

Our task is now to turn these commitments into delivery.

Let us initiate the process to build a Strategic Plan of Action that matches the scale of the challenge and the capacity of middle-income countries to lead.

Let us replace rigid thresholds with multidimensional understanding; fragmented assistance with coherent partnerships; and graduation penalties with support for sustainable transitions.

If middle-income countries succeed, the Sustainable Development Goals can succeed. If they remain trapped, the world will remain off track.

The choice is ours, and the time for action is now.

I thank you.