DHAKA, July 20, 2022 (BSS) - Foreign Minister Dr. AK Abdul Momen called for "global cooperation" for the ongoing fight against the COVID-19 pandemic and "economic recovery".

His call came in a statement at the Virtual COVID-19 Global Action Plan (GAP) Foreign Ministerial Meeting jointly convened by Japanese foreign minister Hayashi Yoshimasa and the US Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken on Tuesday, a foreign ministry press release said here today.

Momen said economic recovery remains at the core of fighting pandemic as the fear of COVID induced stagflation caused an exodus of funds from the developing economies at a time when they need significant investments.

To support their economic recovery, he urged the advanced countries and global financial institutions to enhance flow of concessional loans, including in the healthcare sector; and increase financing in low-carbon developments and transfer green technologies to build back better.

Momen highlighted Bangladesh's tremendous success in COVID management centered on saving lives, supporting livelihoods- especially of the most vulnerable ones, and posting quick economic recovery under the leadership of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.

He also stated that Bangladesh achieved the WHO target of vaccinating 70% of the total population ahead of the deadline.

Being ranked 5th out of 121 countries in the Nikkei Covid-19 Recovery Index of May 2022 was a reflection of Bangladesh's outstanding success in COVID management, he added.

Mentioning that the COVAX mechanism has proved the efficacy of multilateral mechanism, Momen stressed on taking such kind of several global actions to fight the pandemic.

He further stressed enabling countries of the global south like Bangladesh with a relatively advanced pharmaceutical manufacturing base, to build their own capabilities of manufacturing vaccines, testing and therapeutics products through appropriate provisions in IPR and technology transfer.

He also emphasised on strengthening of the National disease control agencies, particularly in dealing with new variants, with the help of the WHO and advanced countries.

Finally, he flagged the need of forming a high level panel of global leaders with gender and geographical balance to devise a blueprint for better global health architecture.

Minister Hayashi, Secretary Blinken, and WHO Director-General Tedros set the stage at the outset of the meeting with their remarks, followed by interventions of the foreign ministers of 14 other countries, the World Bank President, the Acting Director of African CDC and senior officials of several other countries.