PRIME Minister Imran Khan on Thursday reiterated his call for developed countries to augment aid to and “look after” poorer nations as they battle the Coronavirus pandemic amid the deteriorating economic conditions. The Premier, while participating in a high-level virtual event on Financing for Development (FFD) focused on the ‘Era of COVID-19 and Beyond’, stressed that the pandemic was a “global problem” and one that will require a “global solution”.
The Prime Minister, as usual, forcefully put across the viewpoint of the developing countries, making a strong case for meaningful assistance for them to cope with the crisis triggered by Covid-19. His dispassionate appeal assumes significance as the pandemic is not receding in any part of the globe and countries are forced to resume their normal routines out of fear of starvation of their people. The Prime Minister sensitized the international community by highlighting the fact that his Government came out with largest relief package in the history of the country but given the resource constraints this is not enough for a longer duration and, therefore, there was need for cooperation from well-to-do countries to ensure fiscal space for provision of relief to the affected families and also in order to stimulate the economy, which was at a standstill, like other economies of the world, due to Coronavirus-related restrictions and limitations.
All countries have almost similar problems – drastically reduced tax collection, falling exports in the wake of lull in production and stagnation in demand and falling remittances – but difficulties and challenges of the poor countries compound by the fact that they also have to allocate precious resources for debt servicing and would be unable to make adequate allocations for development, which is otherwise a must for picking up growth and create employment opportunities. Under these circumstances, these countries are justifiably demanding debt rescheduling and debt write-off and the issue needs urgent attention otherwise their economies might collapse. It is also to be realized by the rich nations and donors that failure of the developing and poor countries to effectively handle the spread of the virus (due to paucity of resources) would also impact upon their efforts to check the virus because of the fact that the world today has become a virtual global village. It is because of this reality that the virus has spread to almost each and every corner of the world and the chance of its resurfacing would remain there if concrete achievements were not made by all countries. We, therefore, hope that the world would listen to the Prime Minister when he says that the developing countries need bigger stimulus than is presently being envisaged by G20 and the UN chief ought to play a lead role to make it happen.
