PM Optimistic Recovery Financing Will Be Managed In Sustainable Manner

Prime Minister, the Most Hon. Andrew Holness, has expressed high hopes that financing of the recovery of developing nations from the economic impact of the coronavirus (COVID-19) will be managed in a sustainable manner.

“I am optimistic, based on what I am seeing [and] hearing in the international community,” Mr. Holness told leaders gathered at the virtual High-Level Meeting of Heads of State and Government on the International Debt Architecture and Liquidity, which he co-convened with the United Nations and Prime Minister of Canada, His Excellency Justin Trudeau.

“Our voices are being heard, and I am expecting that we will see, in the near future, ambitious actions towards ensuring that the financing of the recovery and the emerging debt as a result, will be managed in a far more sustainable way,” he said.

The Prime Minister’s comments followed his call for critical debt relief, liquidity support, and a new international debt architecture that ensures sustainability.

The meeting was convened following a series of meetings and round tables held last year to spark action to catalyse economic recovery from the pandemic.

Mr. Holness expressed confidence that the world will quickly return to the pathway of achieving the Sustainable Development Goals, primarily because of the impact of the pandemic on the health and education sectors.

“Almost all developing countries will recognise that the recovery will depend on increasing their social spending on health and education and to a significant degree, as well, on the development of broadband and digitisation in their societies,” the Prime Minister said.

He cited the reason for convening the meeting and underscored that an important question was now at hand.

“Are we going to finance this through rising debt in how we previously did it, or are we going to take a more enlightened approach in ensuring that there is even recovery, fair recovery right across the globe?” Mr. Holness asked.

Earlier in the meeting, the Prime Minister noted that with the availability of vaccines, countries are now able to see a path towards global recovery, and that “all countries must have sufficient amounts and capacity to vaccinate their populations if we are to achieve inclusive recovery”.

He encouraged the leaders to continue to take deliberate actions to reverse the devastating economic effects of the pandemic.

In a new policy brief titled, ‘Preventing Debt Crises in the Era of COVID-19 and Beyond:  The Time to Act is Now’, issued on Monday (March 29) ahead of the virtual meeting, UN Secretary-General, António Guterres, warned that “unless we take decisive action on debt and liquidity, we risk another ‘lost decade’ for many developing countries, putting the Sustainable Development Goals definitively out of reach”.