This year will remain in history as the most difficult and unpredictable year over the past few decades, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Such a crisis is not the only in the history of mankind, in different eras people faced similar challenges. But today's world has changed a lot, and it is changing almost every day. The Internet, the digital format of many spheres of life of people and entire states, has forever changed the usual, conservative course of things. Digitalization, both made life easier for people on the planet, and made it more vulnerable. A paradox. An example of this is the global crisis, which was caused by the virus.
Acting Prime Minister, First Vice Prime Minister of Kyrgyzstan Artem Novikov, during a meeting of the Republican Headquarters for Combating COVID-19 said that the country is ready for a possible worsening of the epidemiological situation in connection with the spread of coronavirus infection.
“The situation with the spread of coronavirus infection in the country remains tense. Over 400-500 new cases are registered every day. In recent days, there has been a positive trend, but we must be prepared for a possible worsening of the epidemiological situation. Every effort must be made to prevent new deaths from coronavirus infection,” Artem Novikov said.
The acting prime minister noted that the country has a sufficient number of medicines and personal protective equipment. At the same time, he instructed the Ministry of Health of the Kyrgyz Republic to monitor the prices of medicines in the regions of the republic and continue to work to increase the level of equipping hospitals with the necessary equipment and medicines.
Artem Novikov stressed the importance of taking necessary measures to cope the epidemiological situation.
“As you know, the New Year holidays are ahead, then the early presidential elections. These events are associated with contact between people. Therefore, it is important not to allow an increase in the number of COVID-19 patients,” the acting prime minister concluded stressingthat the health care system must be fully prepared to increase the number of patients during the New Year holidays and elections.
The participants of the meeting discussed in detail the situation on the spread of COVID-19 in each region of the republic.
But, a big event took place on Saturday. The G20 member-countries are committed to support all developing and least developed countries in combating the coronavirus pandemic. This is stated in the final communique released on Sunday at the end of the G20 summit, held Nov. 21-22 in virtual format under the chairmanship of Saudi Arabia.
“We are committed to leading the world in shaping a strong, sustainable, balanced and inclusive post-COVID-19 era. The COVID-19 pandemic and its unprecedented impact in terms of lives lost, livelihoods and economies affected, is an unparalleled shock that has revealed vulnerabilities in our preparedness and response and underscored our common challenges,” the G20 leaders’ statement says.
Political observer Yevgeny Donchenko told Kabar Agency that it can be called important that humanity is in all seriousness ready to review all previous years of international relations. “The time has come to change the approach in all directions of interaction between the countries of the world in order to achieve the maximum effect from a joint stay on Earth. Developing countries are having a hard time this year. The world economic crisis affects the development of national economies. It is worth directing all efforts to prevent many states with the least economic resources from falling into deep crisis processes during this most difficult period. Otherwise, the entire world will get out of control, and it will be much more difficult to put things in order,” he said.
It is worth noting that the G20 countries have pledged to continue to spare no effort to protect lives, provide support with a special focus on the most vulnerable, and put our economies back on a path to restoring growth, and protecting and creating jobs for all.
“We remain determined to support all developing and least developed countries as they face the intertwined health, economic, and social effects of COVID-19, recognizing the specific challenges in Africa and small island developing states. We underscore the urgent need to bring the spread of the virus under control, which is key to supporting global economic recovery. We are determined to continue to use all available policy tools as long as required to safeguard people's lives, jobs and incomes, support the global economic recovery, and enhance the resilience of the financial system, while safeguarding against downside risks,” says in the statement.
A very important result of the summit was the decision to extend the deferral of debt service payments by countries until June 2021.
“We are committed to implementing the Debt Service Suspension Initiative (DSSI) including its extension through June 2021, allowing DSSI-eligible countries to suspend official bilateral debt service payments. We welcome the progress achieved thus far. The preliminary reporting from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank Group (WBG) highlighted that, together with exceptional financing, the DSSI is significantly facilitating higher pandemic-related spending. All official bilateral creditors should implement this initiative fully and in a transparent manner,” says in the statement released by the G20 leaders.
In addition, the G20 leaders stated that given the scale of the COVID-19 crisis, the significant debt vulnerabilities and deteriorating outlook in many low-income countries, debt treatments beyond the DSSI may be required on a case-by-case basis.
In April, the G20 granted the world's poorest countries the right to suspend payments on external sovereign debt, including servicing it, until the end of this year. It was also announced at the summit that a number of other countries intend to join them. As of 13 November 2020, 46 countries have requested to benefit from the DSSI, amounting to an estimated USD 5.7 billion of 2020 debt service deferral.
“Considering the difficult state of affairs in many countries of the world, including the republics of the former USSR, such decisions can have an effective impact on creating a backlash within their own economic limits. These decisions are for the good of a country like Kyrgyzstan, where a sharp increase in the foreign exchange market has recently been observed, and the process of intervention, which the National Bank of the Kyrgyz Republic is engaged in, is unable to eliminate all problems, and such an operation itself does not bring anything good to stabilize the domestic foreign exchange market. It is rather a short-term effect that quickly depletes the financial resource of the market, at the same time helping it as a blitz,” the expert said.
The final Communique states that countries of G20 croup have mobilized resources to address the immediate financing needs in global health to support the research, development, manufacturing, and distribution of safe and effective COVID-19 diagnostics, therapeutics and vaccines. At the same time the group is obliged to commit to advancing global pandemic preparedness, prevention, detection, and response by reaffirming commitment to full compliance with the International Health Regulations, to improving their implementation, including through supporting capacities of countries in need, and to the continued sharing of timely, transparent, and standardized data and information.
Kyrgyzstan is going through difficult times due to the coronavirus pandemic. The epidemiological situation still does not have stable indicators. Every day, more and more cases of coronavirus infection are detected. Also, due to the spread of COVID-19, the Kyrgyz Republic is facing great difficulties in the economy, the country's budget needs significant replenishment. But the work in this direction is carried out on an ongoing basis.
Kabar News Agency
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