By Uzma Zafar
ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan on Tuesday urged the G20 states and the world economic bodies to grant debt relief to developing countries for at least one year as their economies have been hit hard by the novel coronavirus, media reported.
In his virtual address at the Financing for Development summit at UN headquarters in New York, PM Imran urged the rich countries to set up special fund amounting to $500 billing to mitigate the problems being faced by the developing countries due to the COVID-19.
He stressed the need to create a UN Infrastructure Investment Facility to mobilize an additional 1.5 Trillion dollars annually in the developing countries as the IMF estimates that developing countries will require an additional 2.5 Trillion dollars to recover from COVID-induced contraction.
The prime minister said that the COVID-19 pandemic has badly damaged the economies of the poor nations and urged the international economic bodies to play their role for the debt relief. He said that the credit rating of the developing countries should not be affected due to the relief.
The threat of COVID 19 is still looming over the world, PM Imran said and added, “No one is safe from the virus until everyone is not safe.”
Despite difficulties, the Pakistan government launched a relief package worth Rs8 billion for the masses during the pandemic, the prime minister added. He said that the country adopted a smart lockdown policy to contain the spread of the novel coronavirus in the country. Due to the effective measures, Pakistan overcame the coronavirus pandemic, he added.
