ISLAMABAD, Pakistan: Prime Minister Imran Khan has said that the Coronavirus (COVID-19) is a global problem and requires worldwide efforts to tackle it.
While addressing the virtual High-Level Event on Financing for Development (FFD) in Era of COVID-19 and Beyond on Thursday, the prime minister said that Coronavirus has left bad imprints on the global economy and Pakistan is also not immune to it.
The event was hosted by the UN Secretary General António Guterres and Prime Ministers of Canada and Jamaica.
The debt vulnerability of developing Countries was one of the six interlinked financial issues discussed at the High-Level Event.
In his remarks, Imran Khan said that Pakistan imposed lockdown to limit social contacts in its bid to protect the population from Coronavirus.
However, he added, that this created another challenge of providing livelihoods to people to save them from hunger.
Imran Khan said the money that was to be spent on Climate Change and development programmes were diverted towards Coronavirus pandemic. He said that Pakistan’s exports were badly hurt due to weak global demand.
The prime minister said that the government gave a stimulus package equivalent to US$ 8 billion to provide financial help to daily wagers and people of lower-income backgrounds, despite its limited resources.
Imran Khan said that the package was meagre in comparison with huge stimulus packages given by the United States, Germany, Japan, United Kingdom and other developed Countries to their populations.
