King Salman concludes T20 summit: Strong global health system needed to curb COVID-19

Saudi Arabia’s King Salman bin Abdulaziz concluded the T20 summit on Sunday with a written speech delivered by Prince Faisal bin Farhan bin Abdullah, Minister of Foreign Affairs.

King Salman thanked the T20 group represented by the President and the participating members who worked together and discussed solutions to various global challenges.

“We all need to cooperate and work together, especially in light of the current circumstances accompanying the coronavirus pandemic,” King Salman added.

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King Salman also thanked King Abdullah Center for Petroleum Studies and Research and the King Faisal Center for Research and Islamic Studies for their exceptiona­l performance in leading the summit.

King Salman said that the pandemic was not an obstacle to the continuity of the Kingdom’s presidency of the G20. On the contrary, it stimulated international actors to work and seek solutions to this crisis.

He addressed the committee saying: “you emphasized that education in the era of digital innovation includes everyone, without discrimination.”

King Salman affirmed the summit’s plans keep pace with the change in the nature of education and work and to enable society to acquire new skills that are compatible with trends of the future labor market, in order to provide opportunities for young men and women to build a promising economic future and strengthen social protection systems.

The statement explained that the G20 members have had many opportunities to enhance cooperation and discussions on new ways to face environmental challenges and more effective, management of emissions of all kinds which are essential to achieving international climate goals and enhancing access to energy to meet the requirements of inclusive economic growth and sustainable development for all.

“We have no doubt that think tanks have a prominent and effective role in supporting economic and social policy making, and your group has done a great job this year,” he added.

The King elaborated that the T20 summit has issued many recommendations for urgent issues, and it looks forward to coming up with international solutions and initiatives that reinforce the role of the G20 with regard to the unified international response to fight the cornavirus pandemic and its urgent economic, health and social consequences and other challenges that we all face.

King Salman considered that the most important current priorities are saving lives, finding a vaccine for the coronavirus pandemic and combating its health, social and economic consequences, and working on building a strong global health system that will help in fighting the existing epidemic and its near-term effects.

“We had hoped that hosting the Twentieth Summit is in Riyadh, the capital of the Kingdom, but unfortunately, the pandemic has prevented us from that, and we look forward to your visit to the Kingdom after the end of the pandemic so that you will find the most beautiful hosting and enjoy the genuine generosity,” King Salman concluded.

THINK20 is the research and policy advice network of the Group of 20 (G20), serving as a place to build ideas that the G20 can put into action. The two-day summit was the capstone event to the T20 summit season, which has so far already seen over 4,000 registrants attend 11 webinars featuring over 153 speakers, the highest amount of participation in the think tank engagement group since T20’s inception.

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