The third regular meeting of the Group of Twenty (G20), Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors was attended by Obaid bin Humaid Al Tayer, Minister of State for Financial Affairs.

The virtual meeting had the main central topic of global economic recession as a result of Covid-19 pandemic. The meeting also assessed plausible responses by government to mitigate the aftermath scenarios of the pandemic crisis.

Al Tayer stressed on the importance of global efforts as the need of the hour to help reduce and control the pandemic impact, along with the economic and social effects on many countries. He further said that it is important to continue the support required to ramp up the economic recovery in country. He relayed to roll out the G20 Action Plan with constant cooperation among the members till the pandemic is under control.

He said that its time to create global synergy, the required entity. This would help in achieving a balanced and robust recovery with improved logistics and strengthened supply chains globally, with utilization of trade-facilitating measures. He said that a global regulatory framework is necessary to be created, keeping in mind the digital currency rapid evolvement.

Al Tayer said, “The GCC governments have taken several measures to manage the crisis’ repercussions. So far, they have mobilized $160 billion, through financial and monetary programmes, to contain the effects of the global pandemic. These interventions are especially important as we aim not just to contain the pandemic locally, but also to limit negative spill-over, which could have considerable global effects through financial outflows such as capital and financial investments, as well as remittances.”

The meeting also witnessed the examining of G20 Action Plan progress which is aimed to mitigate the pandemic impact on Africa and other under-developed countries. There were also discussions regarding G20 Finance Track deliverables for the year 2020.

The Central Bank Governors and Finance Ministers have signed the third G20 finance communique. It is based on the fourth meeting between Under-Secretaries of the Ministries of Finance and Central Bank representatives of G20. At the end of virtual meeting a press conference was held, which was chaired by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

The G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors will have another meeting which is scheduled for October 2020, in which the financial responses on latest pandemic developments will be assessed.   

WAM