ISLAMABAD – Pakistani PM Imran Khan made impressive impressive address tothe World Economic Forum.
Prime Minister Imran Khan has stressed that coronavirus pandemic is aglobal problem and all the countries affected by it must adopt a jointstrategy to address it.
Addressing the World Economic Forum’s Covid Action Platform, Prime MinisterImran Khan said that the situation in developed and developing countries isradically different as the spread of Covid-19 was not as rapid indeveloping nations such as Pakistan and India as it was in Westerncountries but on the other hand, number of cases is still increasing anddeveloping countries are yet to hit the peak of coronavirus cases.
PM Imran said that the developing countries had to face the twin challengeof stemming the growth of the virus using lockdowns and consequently,mitigating the economic effects of the lockdown on the common people.
He explained that Pakistan has 25 million workers who are daily wagers orget paid weekly or are self employed, which means that any extendedlockdown will result in 25 million unemployed people, possibly affecting 25million households. In total, 120-150 million people have been directlyaffected by the lockdown and face stark poverty and starvation, he added.
To counter this, he said that the government came up with a cash transferprogram which helped 15 million families cope with the lockdown. He notedhowever that this was only a short term solution so therefore, despite therising number of cases, the government has decided to ease the lockdown andopen up businesses and industries so people can find employment.
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He said that we have realized that this year, we will have to learn to livewith the virus until a vaccine is prepared and strike a balance betweencontrolling the spread of the virus and prevent mass unemployment. Toachieve this, the government has raised a volunteer force of 1 millionvolunteers who will help the overburdened administration andlaw-enforcement agencies, he said.
Imran Khan said that Pakistan has a tough year ahead and this comes at theworst possible time as just before Covid-19 hit, the country had managed tobalance the current account and fiscal deficits after a series of verypainful economic reforms.
He noted that the next year will not only be tough for Pakistan but for thewhole world which is why there needs to be a global response to deal withthis challenge.
He urged developed countries to come up with a debt relief policy to helpworst hit countries because debt servicing meant that they have lost anyfiscal space to cope with the challenge, especially with regards to thehealth sector.
