Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El Sisi stressed the importance of partnership with the G20 as a key international cooperation instrument to achieve development and recover from the negative impacts of the global outbreak of coronavirus pandemic.
Speaking at the fourth edition of the G20 Compact for Africa Summit via videoconference, President Sisi said that the support provided to Africa is less than the continent’s actual needs despite pledges made by the international community over the past two years.
“A lot of ambitious initiatives, which were launched, have not turned into a reality,” President Sisi told the participants in the event, including German Chancellor Angela Merkel as well as the heads of African state and government, members of the G20 and a number of international institutions.
The president stressed the importance of the initiative as an effective mechanism to push forward efforts to achieve economic development in Africa in partnership with the G20.
President Sisi underlined that the negative impacts of the coronavirus pandemic on efforts exerted by African countries to achieve comprehensive development.
“Egypt has not been isolated from such effects,” the president said. “However, the economic reform program carried out by the Egyptian government, in cooperation with the International Monetary Fund, greatly contributed to sparing Egypt a lot of these repercussions and enabled the State to implement economic and social measures that proved their effectiveness at all levels,” he added.
“The Egyptian economy is more capable than ever of facing challenges posed by the global developments and meeting the aspirations of the Egyptian people,” he said.
“Egypt hopes the summit to come up with an executive vision that contributes to accelerating the pace of implementing the cooperation mechanisms under this initiative,” he added.
The president said that the issue of producing and distributing the coronavirus vaccines is gaining increasing priority in light of the importance of the vaccines in reducing the numbers of infections and pressure on healthcare systems as well as bringing life back to normal, which will be followed by the return of the economic and social activities.
The president noted that the available vaccines for the African countries are far less than their needs, and international cooperation mechanisms, whether at the bilateral or multilateral levels, still face enormous difficulties related to the vaccine production and fair distribution.
There is a gap between the developed countries that managed to secure vaccines for a large proportion of their population and the African countries that still face the Covid-19 vaccine access challenges, he noted.
“A matter that necessitates an international cooperation in producing and distributing the vaccines as an important matter for the African and the world economy to rebound,” he added
