Hello and welcome everyone
We’re glad you could join us for the World Bank Group – IMF Spring Meetings
Good morning, good afternoon and good evenining
to our viewers from around the world.
Really good to see you all
Ramadan Kareem
Thank you to the World Bank for this invitation.
We are again living through a dangerous period
of overlapping crises and conflicts.
I have been deeply shocked and horrified at Russia’s invasion of Ukraine,
the atrocities committed against the civilian population,
and the loss of life and livelihoods for millions of Ukrainians.
I’ve never seen a period like this with so many shocks,
and so many different types of shocks,
and the magnitude and the size of these shocks.
So we are faced with a multi-faceted challenge
and in a very unpredictable geo-political environment.
Adaptation and resilience are extremely important for many developing countries.
And the latest crisis we're seeing
Ukraine-Russia has brought to the forefront again the importance of food security.
The inequalities that COVID highlighted,
they were there all along.
COVID put a stark light on them
and accelerated some of them.
We’ve never had such a situation in the world
where you had long global lockdown of schools.
And the impact of not going to school and loss of learning
is also unequal.
Yemen is facing a complicated, severe crisis
during the seven years of war.
Humanitarian crisis, we have a deteriorating economy,
4 million internally displaced people,
we have twenty million food insecure,
the COVID 19 that we faced in 2020.
If we are going to reduce the CO2,
definitely we require to address this issue of coal,
and at the same time when the demand for energy is going to continue to increase,
then we have to be able to build a replacement for coal
as well as satisfying the new demand.
We need to be worrying about, not just connecting the rural areas,
but ensuring that that connectivity is meaningful.
And that means a fast connection, it means ownership of devices,
for work, for business, for social, for communication.
And finally it means you have enough data,
and you can afford that data.
It's governance, it's connectivity, it's funding.
It's making sure that this market reaches its full potential
in what it can do for the people of our countries.
We have the opportunity to lay the foundations for a digital society
that must be fairer and more resilient to economic cycles.
We can't solve for a one and a half degree aligned world
purely through financial instruments.
We clearly need that enabling policy and regulatory frameworks in country,
as well as the mechanisms to improve credit worthiness,
so that we can secure both local and international funds.
I think when we are thinking forward and rebirthing education
that we will need to give a lot more thought to what is education for
and we can not have this cookie cutter where in every country we aspire to one norm
which may not work for us.
Because the private sector is so agile
it can take on causes beyond their core business.
And I think looking at the multiple crises that we are facing as humanity,
even pre-pandemic,
it shows that the public sector and private sector
and civil society need to work together.
You have to have a plan
to integrate the migrants at all these sectors.
And that’s why setting up a center of government approach,
it’s an office in the presidency,
that makes sure all the sectors are doing the plan at the same time.
Hope can come in so many forms,
including solidarity from the host government
and the local population,
or even the vaccination program that keeps all of us safe.
Hope is the most powerful glue that sticks humanity together.
Well at its peak one point six billion children
were impacted by COVID-related school closures.
While ninety percent of people in developed countries used the internet,
the figure for developing countries was just fifty seven percent.
And in the least developed countries
it is just twenty seven percent.
Once you start these subsidies,
it’s a race to the bottom.
And poorer countries can not compete.
So we live in a world in which the rich
will get to do everything and the poor will get left out.
In education,
the challenge was the acceptance of parents
to send their kids to school.
Especially girls?
Yes especially girls.
They prefer their kids to go for herding
rather than going to school.
So we had to educate the parents to accept sending their kids to school.
Young women in Afghanistan and around the world,
who are protesting for their rights,
they are raising their voices already.
All I need to say to them is I stand with you.
And that’s the message that they need to hear from the world,
that we stand with them,
we can hear them and that we will take action.
And with your support, with your financial support,
we will quickly rebuild our nation.
That means new opportunities, business from different countries,
for not just economic growth,
but also this will be a specific proof that global financial institutions
are capable to work in the interests of rank and file people
and of mankind in general.
Ukraine is going to take a lot of attention, and should take a lot of attention.
Also the other FCV countries deserve a lot of attention.
Our estimate shows that extreme poverty will be concentrated
concentrated in the FCV in the next couple of years.
So if we want to stop that trend we have to invest.
The US Secretary of Treasury at the time of establishing the Bretton Woods,
he said, "prosperity like peace is indivisible".
So my message for the week, our action has to be indivisible.
You should count on us
as we count on you
to support innovative approaches to the front lines of development.
It is here that we can win the battles
against the multiple crises we are facing.
Public health, particularly maternal and child health
is in the direct focus of the Government of the Republic of Tajikistan
A healthy mother gives birth to a healthy child.
The COVID-19 pandemic continues to impose significant challenges to global economies and governments
and as a result humanity faces completely new ways of life, and education and learning are different.