The developed countries should come forward to support the poor countries to save human lives as the governments in the latter countries are unable to provide adequate healthcare facilities and financial support, said a senior economist Dr. Ahmed Nawaz Hakro in an online video seminar.
The world economy would suffer huge losses and it would take many years to recover from the COVID-19 economic shock, said Dr. Hakro, a professor of Economics and Associate Dean of Research and Innovation at Middle East College, Oman in his lecture organized in Karachi on online platform Zoom.
“The COVID-19 pandemic poses a threat to human lives and may have significant implications for national and global economies,” he commented.
According to Dr. Hakro the health crises is likely to result in a domino effect on business and the economy and virtually on all aspects of our lives. The business and economic impact may vary from the health sector to oil and gas industries, business enterprises, transport, logistics and national and international trade.
“The scientific evidence in the literature suggests that it will impact economies in the areas of health, transportation, travel and tourism and other supply chain mechanisms. International trade and the resulting, interconnectedness of modern economies may therefore affect international supply chains and logistics” he said.
The governments of developing countries like Pakistan should provide support to the vulnerable sections of society as they are already suffering economically and the pandemic has caused large-scale unemployment, said Dr. Hakro.
The policymakers need to look back at the fundamental nature of the working of the economy and devise the response to reboot the economy and maintain the required level of growth, employment and price stability, he remarked.
Dr. Hakro dwelt at length on the economic impacts of the Pandemic Coronavirus (COVID-19) and said that it has developing countries like the USA, Spain, Italy, Germany and the Netherlands have provided support to their people by providing unemployment allowance to the affected people, but the developing countries like Pakistan are not able to provide any substantial relief to its poor.
Due to the lack of basic infrastructure and the absence of healthcare facilities, poor countries would suffer the most. People in developing countries are living in joint families and their houses are small so it is very difficult to observe social distancing.
It is the duty of the United Nations and developed countries to provide financial support to poor countries so lives of common people in those countries can be saved.
Dr. Hakro said serious efforts should be made to reduce conflicts and disputes between the countries so the resources are spent on the welfare and well-being of the people.
The only programme was moderated by Ramesh Raja and Manzoor Ujjan and participants were from Pakistan, England, Canada, Bahrain, Sweden, Italy, the Netherlands, Hungary, Finland, Russia, Germany, Denmark, Saudi Arabia and UAE.
