Affordability and accessibility of vaccines for all will be a crucial step to fight Covid-19 challenges

The G20 member countries need to further strengthen their resolve to end the Covid-19 crisis, said Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Friday, adding that affordability and accessibility of vaccines for all a crucial step in this direction.

"The Finance Minister emphasized the need for further efforts by the G20 members to end the crisis and highlighted affordability and accessibility of vaccines for all as a crucial step in this direction," an official statement by the Ministry of Finance read.

The finance ministers of G-20 countries, which is a grouping of developing and developed nations, gathered on Friday to discuss their views on the global economic outlook and downside risks in the wake of the COVID-19 crisis and how G20 could carry forward the collective global action initiated during the crisis.

Sitharaman highlighted the G20 Action Plan as the mainstay of the G20’s economic response and said, “it not only coordinates our immediate response but also guides our long-term recovery efforts.”

The G20 finance ministers and central bank governors in April published an Action Plan for the international response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Action Plan covers healthcare, economic and fiscal responses that G20 members have agreed to undertake, as well as measures to ensure a return to a strong and sustainable global economy, the provision of support to countries in need, and the learning of lessons in preparation for future crises.

Highlighting the Debt Service Suspension Initiative as an important outcome under the G20 Saudi Arabian Presidency, the Finance Minister emphasized the need for collective and coordinated efforts by all G20 members to achieve this deliverable.

In her concluding remarks, Sitharaman congratulated the Saudi Arabian Presidency for their tireless efforts and exceptional leadership to steer the G20 agenda in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.