Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina stressed the need for concerted global actions and robust leadership to quick recovery of the liquidity crisis and sovereign debt burdens during and the post pandemic era.
“We need ambitious and concerted global action plans to address the liquidity crises and sovereign debt burdens now and in post COVID-19 era,” she said.
Prime Minister said this in a video message that aired in a virtual meeting titled “Financing for Development in the Era of COVID-19 and Beyond Initiative” on Monday on the International Debt Architecture and Liquidity.
With the world struggling to overcome the human and economic devastation from the pandemic, Prime Minister of Canada Justin Trudeau, Prime Minister of Jamaica Andrew Holness ON, MP, and UN Secretary-General António Guterres convened the meeting of world leaders to urge the international community to take additional and urgent action to ensure a robust recovery.
The high-level virtual meeting aims to underscore the urgency of the need for more audacious and concrete action to provide liquidity and address debt vulnerability.
It follows the meetings and roundtables held in 2020 under the auspices of the Financing for Development in the Era of COVID-19 and Beyond Initiative (FFDI) to mobilize action to assist the economic recovery from the pandemic.
Sheikh Hasina in the video message also said, “We need robust leadership from the G7, G20 and OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) countries.”
She added that developed countries, MDBs (Multilateral Development Banks) and IFIs (International Financial Institutions) should scale up liquidity for vulnerable countries, such as large and new ‘Special Drawing Rights’ allocation.
The Prime Minister has advocated that international debt architecture also needs to be revisited for suitable reform, saying, “The developed countries need to fulfil their 0.7 percent O’Day commitment. ”
She came up with the opinion that they should also expand fiscal stimulus, concessional finance and debt relief measures for vulnerable economies.
Finally, there must be new international support measures for the graduating LDCs (Least Development Countries), at least till 2030, commensurate with the SDGs, she continued.
Sheikh Hasina expressed her happiness to join the virtual meeting during the birth centenary of Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and the Golden Jubilee of the independence of Bangladesh.
