His Excellency President Barham Salih takes part in the summit meeting on financing sustainable development to tackle the Corona pandemic

Today, Thursday 28/5/2020, President Barham Saleh participated in the Summit Meeting on Financing Sustainable Development to Address the Repercussions of the Covid-19, at the invitation of the United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and the Prime Ministers of Canada Justin Trudeau and Jamaica Andrew Hollins.

The President of the Republic said in a speech on the virtual meeting that exchanging ideas and finding solutions for sustainable development in the era of the Coronavirus is very important for the world while facing this pandemic and the economic as well as the social devastation that it left behind.

During the meeting, which was attended by French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, World Bank President David Malpas and a number of other world leaders, H.E. affirmed that the challenges we face as an international community are huge and urgent, challenges that can be overcome if we make unified and concerted efforts, indicating that some people tend to look internally, and leave each country to solve the problem alone. Although the impact of the virus is local, the crisis is a global crisis and therefore it needs an international response.

He added, “We are fully aware that the road ahead will be long and arduous, but we have no choice but perseverance and victory, and we must act with a high sense of awareness of the situation, compassion and determination to achieve positive results, otherwise we will fail our people, especially our youth.”

The President of the Republic pointed out that we are still a country in the recovery phase. We have overcome the violence and terrorism practiced by the so-called Islamic State, but our efforts to rebuild are still fragile.

He emphasized that “achieving a more prosperous future and addressing the weaknesses of the Iraqi economy are promises made by the new government of Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kadhemi in its program. Where I committed to start the process of structural reform in Iraq.

The President of the Republic stressed that “we need transitional mechanisms to bridge the gap so that we can immediately implement fiscal stimulus policies that take us out of closed circles in order to enable the stability of our financial affairs and our economy so that we can counter the effects of Covid-19.”