Indonesian Minister of Finance Sri Mulyani Indrawati said the global economic recovery from the tremendous impacts of COVID-19 pandemic is underway though it does not occur in all parts of the world partly due to unequal access to vaccines.
“There are countries (in Africa) whose vaccination rates of their total populations remain below three percent. On average, the vaccination rates of poor countries are only six percent of the populations while those of developed countries have reached above 70 percent or even close to 100 percent,” she said.
As disclosed in her statement at the Splendide Royal Hotel, Rome, Italy, on Saturday (30/10), after accompanying President Joko Widodo at the G20 Summit in La Nuvola, she said, in addition to the unequal access to vaccines, the world’s economic recovery is also threatened by inflation driven by soaring energy prices, and supply-chain disruption.
According to Minister of Finance Sri Mulyani, this is happening in all countries whose economic recoveries are very fast despite experiencing complications in the form of rising energy prices and supply-chain disruptions.
Furthermore, the Minister of Finance explained that the increase in energy occurred very quickly because investment in the energy sector, especially non-renewable energy, had fallen sharply in the face of soaring energy demand due to the economic recovery. The situation led to high inflation in various countries.
“This is a threat to global economic recovery. Indonesia also needs to remain vigilant,” Sri Mulyani said.
Owing to the fact that COVID-19 is a real threat to the world’s economy, she noted that finance ministers and health ministers of G20 countries agreed to build a mechanism called pandemic preparedness.
“Today, the world is not ready to face a pandemic. In fact (the pandemic) has cost up to 12 trillion US dollars, five million people died, and more than 250 million people were infected by this pandemic. So, the world must have better preparations,” Sri Mulyani said .
At the G20 Summit, there would be a joint finance health task force or working unit between the finance ministers and the health ministers under the G20 whose purpose was to prepare the prevention, preparedness, and response (PPR) of the pandemic.
The task force will be led by the Ministers of Finance of Indonesia and Italy.
“Indonesia will be the host or the presidency starting in December and Italy is now the presidency. Indonesia’s role is important because Indonesia is a big country and we also have a commitment to our vaccinations,” Sri Mulyani stated.
Source: Antara News