Pakistan's PM Calls for Easing Debts of Developing Countries Hit by Coronavirus

Imran Khan, Prime Minister of Pakistan, urges the developed nations to ease the burden of debts of the poor countries in the world because that group was hit badly by the Coronavirus, adding that slashing debts of the developing nations help them recover from the devastative repercussions of the pandemic.

Khan stressed, during his virtual speech to the 15th United Nations (UN) on Commerce and Development (UNCTAD),  the necessity of working to return the stolen fortunes to the developing nations as well as the developed nations must share in financing the destructive fallout of the climate change across the planet.

The Premier of Pakistan warned that small island states and their home country face complicated challenges due to global heating and other accompanied phenomena. He asked the participants in the UN conference to do more efforts to stop the illegal flowing of funds out of the developing countries.

He indicated that those funds are estimated at one trillion dollars annually.

In the same context, the World Bank and the COVID-19 Vaccines Global Access (COVAX) Program, which specializes in providing vaccines worldwide, have announced a funding mechanism to expedite the provision of vaccines to developing countries across the world.

These groups of nations are suffering from lower vaccination rates against the Coronavirus compared with the developed countries.

According to “Reuters”, a news agency,  this mechanism allows the program to purchase in advance, at more competitive prices, from vaccine production companies on the basis of a pooled demand from the developing countries through financing from the World Bank (WB) and other multilateral development banks.

World Bank President David Malpass said that obtaining a vaccine remains the biggest challenge for developing countries to protect their peoples from the health, social and economic repercussions of the pandemic.

He explained in a statement that this mechanism will provide new supplies of the anti-corona vaccines and allow more countries to expedite the purchase of vaccines. He considered that this mechanism would also provide transparency regarding the availability of vaccines, prices, and delivery dates.

The World Bank and COVAX agreement, backed by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI), is expected to help low- and middle-income countries get more doses in addition to the doses they receive with full support.

The new mechanism comes in light of mounting concern about the slow pace of vaccinations in low-income countries as the ” Delta” strain of the deadly virus sweeps through the planet now.

Also, Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO), Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has warned of the possibility of the emergence of a new strain of the Coronavirus, stressing that the possible new strain may be more dangerous than the “ Delta” strain which sweeps through the globe now and causes about 90% of infections across the world.

Dr. Ghebreyesus indicated during a speech in the 138th edition of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) that the emergence of a new strain of COVID-19 may lead to spreading out infection in all parts of the world.