The Executive Secretary of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) says that the African ministers of finance will defend the access to financial markets and the bet in the “green” economy to recover from the pandemic.
Speaking to LUSA on the sidelines of the 53rd Conference of Ministers of Finance, Economy and Development of the continent, Vera Songwe said that “this meeting should result in an appeal from the African ministers for an adequate response from the international community to the crisis and an agreement on the recovery plan”, which will be focused on the “green” economy and added that the conversation is very focused on how to build better from now on, how to get out of the crisis”.
Anticipating the conclusions of the meeting that ends tomorrow, Vera Songwe said, “First, how to secure the response we need, extending the Debt Service Suspension Initiative (DSSI) until the end of the year, issuing Special Drawing Rights (from the International Monetary Fund) and lending them” to the most vulnerable countries.
Then, she continued, it is important to create “market access instruments, which we call the Liquidity and Sustainability Instrument, which will allow countries to go to the markets with much lower rates so they can invest in renewable and more sustainable development,” said the official, who is also deputy secretary-general of the United Nations.
The recovery from the crisis, she added, “will depend on a greener economy, with more sustainability, information technologies, a new digital age, and energy, which is the enabler of all this industrialization, besides knowing how we can benefit from the free trade agreement if we don’t have the right infrastructure.
For Vera Songwe, it is certain that the crisis will continue, so the question is to define a long-term response model, instead of the continent being repeatedly caught off guard.
The UNECA committee of experts has been meeting since last week in Addis Ababa, and as of today the African ministers of Finance, Economy and Development are expected to take part. They will take stock of the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic and strategies to overcome the resulting economic and health crisis. (LUSA)
