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Debt relief “China plan” becomes a highlight of the G20 summit, if the vaccine can be distributed fairly, attracting attention
Author: Money in Little Rock
On November 22, the Summit of Leaders of the Group of Twenty (G20) concluded in Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia, which unlike previous summits, was held in video format.
As the rotating presidency in 2020, when Saudi Arabia first assumed this great responsibility, it coincided with the new global corona pneumonia pandemic. The leaders’ summit focused primarily on the two main themes: fighting the new corona pneumonia epidemic and restoring the world economy. In his opening speech, King Salman of Saudi Arabia declared that this year is an extraordinary year. The new corona pneumonia epidemic has caused an unprecedented impact on the global economy and society, and the impact continues to this day.
Regarding the specific outcomes of the summit, in an interview with a China Business News reporter, Zhu Jiejin, deputy director of the United Nations Research Center and International Organizations at Fudan University, said that the “G20 Initiative to suspend payment of the debt of the poorest countries “(hereinafter, the” Debt Relief Initiative “) is the G20 One of the highlights of the summit. “The achievement of the initiative is a great achievement and it will be a substantial asset that will remain after the end of this summit,” he said.
Fair distribution of vaccines
As the first Arab country to assume the presidency of the G20, Saudi Arabia especially hopes to use this platform to demonstrate its influence on the international stage.
In March, Saudi Arabia hosted a special video summit for the G20 to respond to the new corona pneumonia epidemic. This is not only the first video summit in the history of the G20, but also the first time that the G20 has held a special summit in the non-financial field, indicating that the G20 has expanded from the field of global economic governance. . In the field of global health governance.
Despite the successful experience of the March video conference, Saudi Arabia has not yet given up on seeking to have the leadership summit take place offline. However, things failed: the new corona pneumonia epidemic has not improved globally, and a second wave of epidemics has even appeared in European and American countries. In the end, Saudi Arabia decided to celebrate it on November 21, the original date.
Building on the successful experience of video conferencing, Salman proposed in his opening speech on the 21st that the next G20 summits could be held twice a year, with video mid-year and held at the end of the year in the traditional sense. Official Summit offline.
Salman said in his speech that the G20 member states must work together to ensure that the crown’s new vaccine is reasonably priced and can be distributed fairly. He said: “We must create favorable conditions to ensure that the vaccine is affordable for everyone and that everyone has fair access to the vaccine.” At the same time, he also suggested that the G20 countries should be fully prepared to deal with future pandemics. .
When German Chancellor Angela Merkel presented her attendance at the G20 Summit on 22, she expressed concern about how poor countries can get vaccines fairly. He said developed countries have bought a large quantity of vaccines from pharmaceutical companies, but agreements on vaccines for poor countries have not yet been reached.
He said that only through global cooperation can we overcome global challenges like the new corona pandemic. He stressed that to defeat the epidemic, all countries must have access to vaccines and pay for them. He called on all countries to support the “New Coronary Pneumonia Vaccine Implementation Plan” (COVAX) of the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization to ensure that vaccines can be distributed fairly globally.
The “China Plan” for Debt Relief
Following the closing of the summit, the G20 leaders’ Riyadh Summit Declaration (hereinafter the “Declaration”) was issued. In an interview with a China Business News reporter, Zhu Jiejin said that overall, global multilateral cooperation is at a low point, but compared to other multilateral platforms As a platform for international economic governance, the G20 has achieved certain results. .
He said the G20 has taken a number of substantive steps to boost confidence in the world economy: one is to formulate the “G20 Plan of Action” and the other is to launch a debt relief initiative.
This year’s new corona pneumonia epidemic has caused great harm to the world’s poorest countries. These countries often face a “double whammy,” that is, the direct health impact of the epidemic and the enormous impact on the national economy.
“As the economy contracts, export earnings, tourism earnings, etc. disappear, and pressure on the health system increases, conflict, hunger, poverty and disease will increase.” United Nations Under-Secretary-General Lowcock once described the experience of the poorest countries.
Zhu Jiejin said that these countries’ debt problems have become particularly obvious during the epidemic, and the G20 countries are their main creditors. He said that in Western countries there is the Paris Club of creditor countries, but many emerging economies are not in this organization, so the G20 has become a platform to deal with the debt problems of the poorest countries. .
Zhu Jiejin analyzed to a China Business News reporter that once the debts of these countries collapse, a financial crisis can form, and the financial crisis is very contagious between countries, “it can be as contagious as the new pneumonia epidemic. of the crown “. Therefore, the G20 countries have a responsibility to join forces and not allow the epidemic to cause damage to the economy and ultimately lead to a systemic crisis in the global financial market.
The declaration states that G20 countries will extend the debts of the poorest countries until June 2021 and allow countries eligible for debt relief to suspend their official bilateral debt payments. G20 finance ministers and central bank governors will decide whether they need to postpone the debt relief initiative for another 6 months before the spring meeting of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank in April 2021, based on the economic and financial situation. As of November 13, 2020, 46 countries had applied to participate in the Debt Mitigation Initiative. The total amount of debt mitigation in 2020 is expected to be US $ 5.7 billion.
In an interview with a reporter for China Business News, Zhu Jiejin said that in this initiative, China has played an active role and presented a “Chinese plan”. The most important thing is to promote joint action and insist that multilateral and bilateral creditors, official and commercial creditors should participate together in the “debt relief” of the poorest countries. He said that the official participation of the G20 countries is not enough. For Western creditors, many of them are private companies. Without your involvement in debt relief, the effect will be greatly reduced.
Another prominent aspect of the Chinese plan is the principle of promoting development. Zhu Jiejin said that China calls on international rating agencies to also participate in the debt mitigation process, which is conducive to effectively reducing the real debt burden of debtor countries, maintaining their normal financing capabilities in the international market and help them embark on a solid path of sustainable development.
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