Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said Bangladesh firmly believes that coronavirus vaccines should be declared as global public goods and called for a strong partnership to tackle corona challenges.
The pandemic, she noted, has brought mankind at a crossroad of human history confronting possibly the gravest global challenge of our times.
“The socio-economic impacts of the pandemic are massive and are still unfolding. It is, therefore, extremely important to strengthen the global and regional partnerships through coordinated efforts to address these challenges,” she said.
Prime Minister Hasina said this in her pre-recorded video speech on Tuesday at the opening plenary of the four-day annual conference Boao Forum for Asia (BAF) titled ‘A world in change: Join hands to strengthen global governance and advance Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) Cooperation’.
Sheikh Hasina focused on three issues – firstly, the need for strong partnership to address the challenges posed by the pandemic, and to make vaccines available to everyone by declaring it as global public goods.
Secondly, the need to work together for harnessing the power of technology as the future will be driven by the 4IR, which comes with opportunities and challenges, and thirdly, seamless physical and digital connectivity which will be the key to reaping the benefits of the Asian Century.
