Rich Countries Injected $20 Trillion To Their Economies To Stimulate Growth, However Developing Countries Did Not Have The Capacity For Fiscal Space To Ensure Liquidity: Prime Minister Imran Khan

The prime minister said the rich countries injected $20 trillion to their economies to stimulate growth, however, pointed that the developing countries did not have the capacity for fiscal space to ensure liquidity

ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 4th Mar, 2021 ):The prime minister said the rich countries injected $20 trillion to their economies to stimulate growth, however, pointed that the developing countries did not have the capacity for fiscal space to ensure liquidity.

He recalled his proposal of a five-point plan to provide developing countries the fiscal space to recover from COVID-19 crisis including debt relief, creation and redistribution of Special Drawing Rights, concessional finance, mobilization of climate finance, and ending illicit financial floors and return of stolen assets back to the developing countries.

Imran Khan pointed out that $1 trillion was illegally transferred every year from poor to rich countries and also to the tax havens.

Apart from health and economic consequences, he said the COVID-19 crisis had exacerbated the manifestation of religious discrimination, xenophobia and Islamophobia in various parts of the world, which was witnessed in Pakistan's neighbourhood as well.

He said COVID-19 lockdown enabled the suppression of people in occupied territories struggling for their right to self-determination.

He said it was essential to reject any attempt linking Islam with terrorism and termed it the "biggest injustice" being done to the Muslims across the world. The misuse of freedom of expression to cause pain to the Muslims by denigrating Prophet Muhammad (Peace Be Upon Him) must be stopped.

Imran Khan said at the United Nations, Pakistan, Turkey and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) had initiated a proposal for the annual observance of an international day to combat Islamophobia.

With rich resources and enterprising people, he said, the ECO member countries represented half a billion people covering an area of eight million square miles and formed the geographical link in the Asian Continent east & west and north & south.

He said the common cultural and heritage was nurtured by luminaries like Al-Bairuni, Farabi, Rumi and Iqbal, which could provide a solid foundation for cooperation under the ECO umbrella in sectors particularly trade, energy, tourism, agriculture and industrial growth.

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