G20 finance, health ministers call for supply chains, vaccine distribution

By Ovunc Kutlu

ANKARA (AA) - The G20 finance and health ministers on Friday called for strengthening the resilience of global supply chains and increasing vaccine distribution and administration around the world.

"The COVID-19 pandemic continues to have profound impacts worldwide," they said in a joint statement ahead of the critical G20 summit, adding the pandemic has taken a heavy toll on the global economy.

Stressing that the coronavirus pandemic has exposed significant shortcomings in the world’s ability to coordinate the global health response, it said the world was weakly prepared for the challenges of responding to the pandemic and its socioeconomic impact.

"We will work to increase transparency and predictability of deliveries of vaccines and to foster responsible public-private partnerships," the statement said.

The ministers said they will take steps to boost the supply of vaccines and essential medical products in developing countries, and remove supply and financing constraints, in order to achieve the goals of vaccinating at least 40% of population in all countries by the end of 2021 and 70% by mid-2022.

At this weekend’s Rome summit, the G20 countries that make up 80% of the world economy and 75% of the global trade will be gathering for the 16th time.