Saudi Presidency of G20 ends with a reassurance to overcome pandemic

The G20 2020 under the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s Presidency Concluded its summit Sunday evening, sending a strong message to the world: No efforts will be spared to protect lives from the Covid19 virus and to ensure affordable and equitable access for all people to the COVID-19 vaccine. Debt Service Suspension Initiative (DSSI), allowing DSSI-eligible low-income countries to suspend official bilateral debt, extended through June 2021.

In one of the most important meetings for decision making in the world, this year’s virtual G20 Leaders’ Summit, chaired by Saudi Arabia had the global COVID-19 pandemic on top of its agenda. The leaders concluded their meetings by sending a strong message to the world in their Final Communiqué: No efforts will be spared to protect lives from the virus and to ensure affordable and equitable access for all people to the COVID-19 vaccine.

The G20 Leaders, thus, reiterated their commitments of the Extraordinary Summit on March 26 and welcomed the progress achieved since. The group also pledged to work to put the world economy back on a track to restoring growth with a special focus on the most vulnerable countries.

“We have succeeded in sending out a message of hope and reassurance to our citizens and all people around the world through the Final Communique of this Leaders’ Summit. This is what the world has been expecting from us. This achievement today is a culmination of our joint efforts throughout this challenge-fraught year. Our joint and individual actions will be critical in overcoming the immediate global challenge we are facing. Looking forward, through Empowering People, Safeguarding the Planet, and Shaping New Frontiers, we will work on laying the foundations to achieve the main theme of our Presidency: Realizing Opportunities of the 21st Century for All,” the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud said in his closing remarks Sunday.

The Saudi G20 Presidency spared no efforts in cultivating collective efforts during the challenging situation of 2020. During the year of Saudi Presidency more than 400 ministerial and senior meetings of the G20 were organised by the Saudi Presidency, and their decisions and recommendations were briefed to the Summit leaders yesterday and today. Despite the global restrictions and complications caused by Covid19 to the whole world Saudi officials worked effectively under the G20 umbrella, supported by a highly qualified Saudi engineers and IT experts and a very advanced infra-structure and network of internet and communications.

Besides rising to the challenge of the COVID-19 pandemic together, the G20 also made progress on building a resilient and long-lasting recovery, shaping a strong, sustainable, balanced and inclusive post-COVID-19 era. Already, unprecedented fiscal, monetary and financial stability actions have been implemented, including the Debt Service Suspension Initiative (DDSI) for the least developed countries that would allow beneficiary countries to defer USD 14 billion in debt payments due this year and use these amounts instead for financing their health systems and social programs.

At the G20 Summit this weekend, the leaders welcomed the progress achieved thus far by the Debt Service Suspension Initiative (DSSI) and extended the initiative through June 2021.

“This was the first time that Saudi Arabia had the honor of holding the Presidency of the G20, and it turned out to be a very challenging year. Nevertheless, with your support, we managed to rise to the challenge together,” HM King Salman said to the group of G20 leaders.

“Due to its unique stature regionally and internationally, and its unique location which interconnects three continents and lies at the intersection of emerging and developed markets, the Kingdom will still continue to play a key role within the G20 to achieve global cooperation and find solutions to the world’s most pressing challenges of the 21st century, in collaboration with its partners in the G20 and other countries,” King Salman added in his concluding word.

The Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques ended his speech by thanking all the participants and then he passed the responsibility of the 2021 G20 Presidency on to the Italian Republic and Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte, wishing him every success.

The second session of the Summit was chaired today by HRH Prince Mohamed bin Salman, Crown Prince, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defense. Prince Mohamed mentioned in his speech before the Summit that the G20 member have taken several measures to fight the pandemic, including the allocation of USD 21 billion to support immediate recovery efforts. Saudi Arabia’s contribution on this regard was USD 500 millions. In addition the G20 Group has injected more than USD 11 trillion into the international economy to support companies and protect the individuals livelihood. This represented an unprecedented G20 economic stimulus.

Also USD 300 billion has been mobilized via development banks, the IMF, and the World Bank, which are working with the G20 to assist emerging and low-income countries.

The International Labour Organization ILO estimates that the G20 social protection measures taken so far during the pandemic have supported the livelihoods of nearly 645 million people.

The Crown Prince reiterated Saudi Arabia’s vow to assist poor and highly indebted countries that have borne the brunt of the pandemic, and cited the Saudi initiative, that has been launched for boosting preparedness against any future pandemic.

“We have demonstrated that, together, our strength lies in our unity,” the Crown Prince added.

In addition to HM King Salman who chaired the Summit and the delegation of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to the Summit, The delegation of Saudi Arabia to the Summit was composed of HM King Salman who chaired the Summit and the delegation of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to the Summit, The delegation of Saudi Arabia to the Summit was composed of HRH Prince Mohamed bin Salman, Crown Prince, Deputy Prime Minister and Minster of Defense, and HH Prince Faisal bin Farhan bin Abdullah, and Dr. Musa’ed Al-Aiban, Minister of State, Member of Cabinet, Dr. Ibrahim Alassaf, Minister of State and Member of Cabinet, and Mr. Mohamed Aljadan, Minister of Finance.