World Economic Forum: The secretary general urges business to help poor countries in this ‘time of need’

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres today called on business leaders to support developing countries in this “time of need” by providing access to Covid-19 vaccines, helping to combat the climate crisis and reforming the global economic system. .

Speaking at the Digital World Economic Forum in Davos, Guterres said: “In all three of these areas, we need the support, the ideas, the funding and the voice of the global business community.”

He noted that “there is a worldwide failure to support developing countries in this time of need” and warned that if action was not taken immediately, inequality and poverty would deepen, sparking more social unrest and more violence.

“We can not stand this kind of instability,” said Guterres, who began a second five-year term as head of the United Nations on January 1.

Antonio Guterres has long pushed for more international action to tackle COVID-19 vaccination inequality, climate change and the reform of the global economic system.

“We need a global financial system that is appropriate. That means urgent debt restructuring and a long-term debt architecture,” he said.

Last year, the World Health Organization set a target of 40% of people in all countries being vaccinated against Covid-19 by the end of 2021 and 70% by mid-2022.

“We are nowhere near these targets. Vaccination rates in high-income countries are shamefully seven times higher than in African countries. We need vaccination equality now,” Guterres said.

“The last two years have shown a simple but hard truth: if we leave someone out, we leave everyone out,” he said.

“If we do not manage to vaccinate every human being, we will create new variants of the ‘Covid-19 virus’, which will spread across borders and violently paralyze daily life and economies,” he added.

SOURCE: ΑΠΕ-ΜΠΕ