Daily Times

Pakistan’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Munir Akram has said that the global community must avoid vaccine nationalism both in terms of production and distribution. In a media briefing in New York, he said that vaccine inequality will slow down the recovery process from the Coronavirus pandemic. Munir Akram said the vaccine inequality is becoming more and more visible and this will translate into inequality in the impact of the pandemic, both economic and social. He said, “We need to have quick action on the response to pandemic and to contain the virus equitably and globally.” He welcomed the Group of 20 (G-20) move to create $650 billion in new Special Drawing Rights (SDRs), and also a proposal from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) chief for the re-purposing or reallocation of an utilized SDRs is of some countries to provide assistance to developing countries. “I hope that this reallocation will be sizeable, and that it will be applied to those countries, which actually need the liquidity and fiscal space.” Akram hoped that G-20 would remain flexible in their debt service suspension initiative, now extended until December of 2021, even though they said it will be the last extension. Flexibility was needed because no one was sure about how far and how long the pandemic lasts, he said.