ASEF Executive Director, Ambassador Morikawa Toru, participated at the 14th ASEM Finance Ministers’ Meeting (ASEMFinMM14) on 6 November 2020 organised by Bangladesh. The overall theme of ASEMFinMM14 is “Addressing COVID-19: Ensuring a Strong, Sustainable, Inclusive and Balanced Recovery.”
Ambassador Morikawa iterated that recovering from the COVID-19 is a collective responsibility requiring coordinated efforts. He highlighted the following points related to ASEF’s work in various fields:
- Dialogue between health and non-health sectors is essential
- While the pandemic is addressed globally, the environmental impact including influence on climate change needs to be taken into account
- Equitable access to quality education is a high priority especially since the youth will shoulder the long-term economic and social consequences of the crisis
- We should recognise the role of artists – with some assistance they can play an important role in crisis recovery especially in the psychological well-being of society
- The digital divide must be addressed with consistent investments
Attendees to the ASEMFinMM14 included ASEM Ministers of Finance, other Heads of Delegation, financial institutions including the World Bank, the IMF, and the ADB, ASEF and the ASEAN+3 Macroeconomic Research Office (AMRO).
Read Amb Morikawa’s speech here
More info at the ASEM Infoboard