PARIS – Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) secretary-general Angel Gurria yesterday urged a quadrupling of aid for emerging countries, warning that otherwise, these nations will be unable to defeat the coronavirus.
“We have to make a huge effort with developing countries" as they simultaneously face a 700 billion drop in external provate finance, while they also have to boost spending to stem the impact of Covid-19,” he told French broadcasters RF1, France 24 and Public Senat in an interview.
Although the richest countries have marshalled some US$12 trillion (RM49.5 trillion) to fight the economic consequences of the pandemic, development aid last year totalled US$153 billion.
“That means we can double it, triple, quadruple it.”
He added that to provide even a fraction of the US$12 trillion would comprise an act of “generosity” and also “wisdom”, as victory over the disease cannot be achieved “until the last virus case is eliminated from developing countries”.
Reacting to news this week that Pfizer and BioNTech plan to roll out the first doses of a vaccine within weeks, Gurria urged that the vaccine be made “a public good” amid fears that developing nations could face financial hurdles in receiving sufficient doses.
He said while he agrees with the need for health workers and the elderly to be treated as priority cases for the first doses, “the great majority of the population will have to be vaccinated, or else, we are going to have virus explosions in certain countries”. – AFP, November 14, 2020
