G20 Summit in Saudi Arabia aims to revive economic growth
With an agenda of “Restoring Growth and Safeguarding against the COVID-19 Pandemic,” Saudi Arabia will host for the first time the G20 leaders summit this weekend.
The G20 Summit, led by the current Presidency of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, has taken immediate and exceptional steps to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic that has seriously affected countries' economies and health systems around the world.
Neglected groups, such as women, youth and low-income communities, were greatly affected. In this sense, the G20's actions have benefited 46 low-income countries in the fight against COVID-19.
The COVID-19 pandemic has presented prolonged health, humanitarian and economic challenges worldwide. In response, the G20 strengthened its focus on protecting lives and livelihoods while shaping a better world to seize the opportunities of the 21st century for all. The main thrust here is to restore strong, sustainable, balanced and inclusive growth.
The pandemic has affected countries and people around the world. Vulnerable and underserved groups, including women, youth and low-income communities, have been disproportionately affected.
The Saudi G20 presidency highlighted the issues and challenges affecting sustainable development, including tackling aspects, equal opportunities, and weaknesses in debt at a time when resources are needed to address the pandemic and protect sustainable development.
The G20 members have adopted exceptional and unprecedented measures to address the implications of the pandemic, including financial measures and others related to monetary stability.
More than $11 trillion has been pumped to support the global economy, including closing the health financing gap with $21 billion to improve pandemic preparedness and response.
The Saudi G20 presidency also launched the historical initiative to suspend debt service payments "G20 Debt Service Suspension Initiative (DSSI)," which allowed the poorest countries to postpone $14 billion of debts owed by them this year and to benefit from these sums to address the pandemic. As many as 46 low-income countries have benefited from this initiative. The multilateral development banks seek to provide USD 75 billion during the period from April to December 2020 to the DSSI-eligible countries to benefit from the initiative.
In addition, Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs) are working to provide USD 75 billion from April to December 2020 to DSSI eligible countries as part of a broader USD 230 billion package for emerging and low-income countries as a response to the pandemic.
H.E the Minister of Finance Mr. Mohammed bin Abdullah Aljadaan stated, “The upcoming G20 Leaders' Summit will seek to strengthen international cooperation to support the global economic recovery and lay solid foundations for strong, sustainable, balanced and inclusive growth, building on the success of the extraordinary G20 Leaders’ Summit in March 2020". “We have an opportunity to recover stronger and more sustainably from this pandemic, with greater social and economic inclusion. The Saudi G20 Presidency took swift and unprecedented actions, facilitating the path to shape a better post COVID-19 world. Through a united global response, the G20 is determined to continue tackling the major challenges of our time and work towards finding solutions," said the Minister.