Pakistan expresses deep condolences on the terrible earthquake that hit hundreds of thousands of people in Syria & Turkiye

NEW YORK, Feb 11 (SABAH): A meeting was held during Commission on Social Development – 61st Session – under the Theme: Creating full and productive employment and decent work for all as a way of overcoming inequalities to accelerate the recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic and the full implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development on Saturday at the United Nations.

Deputy Permanent Representative of Pakistan, Ambassador Mohammad Aamir Khan, delivered National statement by Pakistan.

Pakistan expressed deep condolences on the terrible earthquake that hit hundreds of thousands of people in Syria and Turkiye on 6 February 2023. “We stand in solidarity with the two countries and their peoples and will do whatever we can to help our brothers and sisters in the face of this enormous calamity” Ambassador Aamir khan said. Ambassador Aamir Khan said despite extraordinary progress in human and social development achieving higher education standards, employment growth, rising incomes and mitigating poverty for hundreds of millions of the world’s population, yet we have not been able to reduce inequalities. “we also experienced regression and the gap between the rich and the poor, among and within nations, has been growing. The poor are still poor; the rich are much richer”: he said. He expressed deep concern on the worsening inequality, that has accelerated since the global financial crisis at the end of the first decade of this century.

“It is today the Pandemic of inequalities which is playing more havoc with people’s lives and livelihoods than any other challenge in recorded history” he added. “The poorest countries and the poorest and most vulnerable people suffer the most. The richer nations have injected around $17 trillion to stimulate their economies”: Ambassador Aamir Khan said. The developing countries are struggling to find even a fraction of the $4.1 trillion, estimated to recover from the pandemic and achieve the SDGs: he said. There is a also an eminent threat of debt deficits and economic collapse in several countries, causing massive human suffering: he warned. “International solidarity is more essential today than ever before. The developing countries must be provided with the necessary means to recover from the crises and to achieve the SDGs” he insisted. He called for food, finance, and fuel solidarity at these difficult times ” Out of Pakistan’s total population of 220 million, over 68% is below the age of 30 and 27% ages of 15—29 which demonstrate that more employment opportunities will have to be created for the inclusive social and economic development”, he said.

“The Pakistan Federal and provincial governments have introduced programs for employment generation, including Youth Empowerment Programme, loan and laptop awarding schemes, establishment of the National Incubation Centers for promoting entrepreneurship and innovation, paid internship programmes, microcredit schemes, entrepreneurship initiatives, and vocational training programmes”, he informed.

“The Government is also making efforts to improve employment opportunities for youth by boosting the private sector, creating a robust environment of entrepreneurship, improving exports, and improving the access to internet services” Mentioning recent floods, he said that ” Pakistan is still reeling from the worst natural disaster of its history. At this time national emergency, the Government provided cash grants of over $250 million to over 2 million households. Despite our financial constraints, we mobilized $1.5 billion for emergency relief” “We utilized our existing robust social protection mechanism: Benazir Income Support Programme for this purpose” To bridge inequalities within and among countries Pakistan to mobilize from all possible sources: fulfillment of the 0.7 percent ODA target; redistribution of the $650 billion SDRs and allocation of new SDRs; concessional finance from the multilateral institutions and development banks; and debt relief and restructuring. It was also suggested that international financial institutions should distance themselves from the contractionary policies to ensure debt repayments at this time of financial difficulties. The developing countries should be provided with fiscal resources and actions should be taken to lessen their borrowing cost.

He also called for decent work, social protection systems, including nationally defined social protection floors should be made part of national development strategies. He urged to take efforts for upscaling investments in sustainable infrastructures to generate employmen and to promote quality education, overcome digital divide and provide financial and technical assistance to the developing countries.

He also urged that discriminatory practices and trade protection measures need to be discouraged and necessary measures are to be taken to promote export led growth in developing countries. Pakistan reaffirmed its abiding commitment to fulfilling the goals and objectives in the World Summit for Social Development, and the twenty-fourth special session of the General Assembly, especially poverty eradication, promotion of full and productive employment, and the fostering of social inclusion.