PM chalks out six-point global financial plan to tackle Covid-19 crisis

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina today underscored the need for a well-coordinated global roadmap to face the Covid-19 crisis and urged the United Nations to continue to play its catalytic role in this regard.

"We need a well-coordinated roadmap to face the Covid-19 crisis. The 2030 Agenda, the Paris Agreement, and the Addis Ababa Action Agenda can be our blueprint to overcome this crisis. The UN must continue to play its catalytic role in this regard," she said.

The PM said this while delivering her pre-recorded speech in the 'High-Level Event on Financing for Development in the Era of Covid-19 and Beyond' held at the UN Headquarters.

Canadian Prime Minister Trudeau, Jamaican Prime Minister Andrew Michael Holness, and UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres convened the meeting.

Hasina highlighted six points before the world leaders on having a better coordinated roadmap to face the Covid-19 crisis.

Firstly, she said, the G-7, G-20, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development countries, MDBs, and IFIs should scale up fiscal stimulus, concessional finance, and debt relief measures. The advanced economies must fulfill their 0.7 percent Official Development Assistance commitment.

"Secondly, we need to divert more private finance and investment to the developing countries. We must leverage science, technology and innovation for closing the digital divide."

Thirdly, she said, right policy steps needed for reversing the downward trend of remittance flow by helping the migrant workers during the pandemic and in the post-Covid job market.

The PM said advanced economies must fulfill their unmet promises regarding duty- and quota-free market access, technology support, and more accessible financing for developing countries.

As a fifth step, she said there must be new international support measures for graduating LDCs to prevent any possible slide back due to the pandemic, at least till 2030.

 "Finally, more vigorous efforts are required to finance climate actions and resilient recovery," Hasina said.

Prime Minister of Canada Justin Trudeau, Prime Minister of Jamaica Andrew Holness, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, International Monetary Fund (IMF) Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva and World Bank Group President David Malpass also spoke at the programme.

On May 28, 2020, Canada, Jamaica and the UN secretary-general convened a high-level event to join forces with heads of state and government, international organisations, and other key partners to enable discussions for concrete financing solutions to the Covid-19 health and development emergency for everyone, according to the UN website.

To take stock and consider bold choices that now need to be made to secure a common future, Canada, Jamaica and the secretary-general convened a follow-up meeting of the heads of state and government today.

The overall objective of the meeting is to consider the policy options developed over the last four months with the ambition of supporting member states in responding and recovering from the current global crisis.

It said the Covid-19 pandemic and the social and economic crisis it triggered has not only caused immeasurable suffering in the past six months but could also derail five years of global efforts to achieve the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

The pandemic is expected to drive between 71 and 100 million people into extreme poverty, the first such increase since 1998.

Meanwhile, 400 million jobs worldwide were lost in the second quarter of 2020 relative to the last quarter of 2019.

This has served to reinforce and further widen economic inequalities, disproportionately impacting developing countries and vulnerable groups.