The Secretary General of the United Nations (UN), António Guterres, this Wednesday defended the need to reform the "global financial architecture" so that it responds better to current challenges. The intention is for this debate to take place at the Future Summit, scheduled for September this year.

Speaking to the world's elite gathered at the Davos Economic Forum, António Guterres argued that, with the growth of several emerging economies, such as China and India, there needs to be a rebalancing of powers that is consistent with each country's weight in the world economy.

"We live in an economic system that was designed after the Second World War and basically designed by the developed countries. And we see emerging economies with an increasing weight in the global economy, but not a similar weight in the institutions that govern the global economy," he said.

Among the institutions that António Guterres believes should be reformed are the UN Security Council and "the Bretton Woods system", which gave rise to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank, both created "80 years ago".

António Guterres stressed that this change "will not happen overnight", but "it is essential and possible". He therefore hopes that the different UN member states will present proposals for reforming the current financial architecture at the UN Summit for the Future in September.

The UN Secretary General argued that only with this reform will it be possible for world leaders to face the "existential threats" posed by current challenges, such as climate change and the "unbridled development" of artificial intelligence (AI), for which there is "no effective global strategy to deal with them".

"Geopolitical divisions are preventing us from uniting around global solutions," he stressed, pointing out that 2023 was "the hottest year on record" and it is necessary "as a matter of urgency" for "governments to work with technology companies on risk management frameworks for the current development of AI and on monitoring and mitigating future damage".