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PM Imran Calls For Universal Access to Anti-COVID Vaccine

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan has called for universal and affordable access to anti-Covid-19 vaccine to defeat the pandemic and revive global trade, investment and growth.

Virtually addressing the UN High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development on Tuesday, he said the world must ramp up vaccine production, including in the developing countries, and ensure its rapid distribution.

The Prime Minister said adequate finance must be mobilized to enable the developing countries to meet the triple challenge of COVID recovery, SDG implementation and realization of environmental goals.   

He said the high-income countries have been able to inject 17 trillion dollars to stimulate their economies, while the developing countries are in dire need of at least 4.3 trillion dollars to recover from the crises and implement the SDGs. He said they have so far, unfortunately, secured access to less than 5 percent of this amount.

Imran Khan said the high-income countries voluntarily re-allocate a part of their unutilized International Monetary Fund quotas, and this should be approved urgently.

Imran Khan said restructuring of high-cost debt is another essential instrument to provide fiscal space and development finance for the affected developing countries.

The Prime Minister said commitments made to provide concessional and grant finance to developing countries must be fulfilled.

Similarly, he said it is vital to fulfill the commitment made by developed countries to provide 100 billion dollars per year in climate finance.

He said Pakistan’s landmark projects such as our “Recharge” initiative and 10 Billion Tree Tsunami project can benefit greatly from such support. 

The Prime Minister urged the United Nations to initiate a multi stakeholder dialogue to mobilize one trillion dollars investment required annually in sustainable infrastructure.

He said the international trade regime must provide all developing countries with equitable and preferential access to global markets and the protectionist measures erected by some major economies in violation of WTO agreements must be rescinded.