Dhaka calls for global cooperation to fight pandemic, its economic fallout

Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen has called for global cooperation to combat the Covid-19 pandemic for quick economic recovery.

He made the call while delivering a statement at the virtual Covid-19 Global Action Plan (GAP) Foreign Ministerial Meeting jointly convened by Japan and the US on Tuesday.

Momen said economic recovery remains at the core of fighting pandemic.

The fear of Covid induced stagflation caused an exodus of funds from the developing economies at a time when they need significant investments, he said.

To support their economic recovery, Momen urged the advanced economies and global financial institutions to enhance flow of concessional loans, including in the health care sector; and increase financing in low-carbon developments and transfer green technologies to build back better.

During his intervention, Momen highlighted Bangladesh's tremendous success in Covid management centered on saving lives, supporting livelihoods- especially of the most vulnerable ones, and posting quick economic recovery under the leadership of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.

Financial packages worth 23 billion dollars helped the economy recover quickly and post a growth of 6.94 per cent in 2021, he informed.

He also stated that Bangladesh achieved the WHO target of vaccinating 70 per cent of the total population ahead of the deadline.

Being ranked 5th out of 121 countries in the Nikkei Covid-19 Recovery Index of May 2022 was a reflection of Bangladesh's outstanding success in Covid management, he added.

Mentioning that the Covax mechanism has proved the efficacy of multilateral mechanism, Momen stressed several global actions to fight the pandemic.

He reiterated Bangladesh's demand to declare Covid-19 vaccines as 'global public goods'.

He stressed enabling countries of the global south like Bangladesh with a relatively advanced pharmaceutical manufacturing base, to build their own capabilities of manufacturing vaccines, testing and therapeutics products through appropriate provisions in IPR and technology transfer.

Momen also emphasised on strengthening of the National disease control agencies, particularly in dealing with new variants, with the help of the WHO and advanced countries.

He flagged the need of forming a high level panel of global leaders with gender and geographical balance to devise a blueprint for better global health architecture.

The Ministerial meeting was aimed at bringing together partners to maintain and strengthen political will to address Covid-19 challenges.

Japanese Foreign Minister Hayashi, Secretary Blinken, and WHO Director-General Tedros set the stage at the outset of the meeting with their remarks, followed by interventions of the foreign ministers of 14 other countries, the World Bank president, the Acting Director of African CDC and senior officials of several other countries.