G20 Chair Italy Prime Minister: "Vaccination Rate 70% in Developed Countries, 3% in Developing Countries... Distribution Inequality"

[Asia Economy Reporter Dongwoo Lee] Mario Draghi, Prime Minister of Italy, the chair country of the Group of Twenty (G20) summit, called for the "spirit of multilateralism" on the 30th (local time) to coincide with the opening of the meeting.

In his welcoming remarks to the G20 leaders that day, Draghi said, "We must revive the spirit that led to the establishment of the G20."

Draghi particularly pointed to the distribution of COVID-19 vaccines as an area urgently requiring collective response through multilateralism. He noted that due to unequal vaccine distribution, more than 70% of the population in developed countries have received at least one dose, whereas the vaccination rate in developing countries is only 3%.

He added, "Such disparities are morally unacceptable and hinder the global economic recovery."

Draghi emphasized, "Although the global community has faced great difficulties due to the pandemic, even before that, we were confronted with issues such as protectionism, unilateralism, and nationalism. The more problems we face, the only solution can ultimately be multilateralism."

The 16th Rome G20 summit, held over two days until the 31st, will focus discussions on climate change response, overcoming the pandemic and global economic recovery, and resolving the energy crisis.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.