Georgian President Discusses Coronavirus-related Challenges at High-level UN Event

"The pandemic has challenged us all and revealed our strengths and weaknesses," President of Georgia Salome Zurabishvili said at the UN high-level online conference, which was dedicated to the mechanisms of financing the global development during and after the COVID-19 pandemic.

In her words, for Georgia, a  small country with an emerging economy at the door of Europe, it has given us a number of important lessons:

"It has pinpointed the importance of professionalism and strong management both for dealing with the crisis and for our future economic development.

"It has shown the importance to preserve the core elements of democracy: transparency, proportionality and accountability have been maintained.  Proving that democracies can effectively manage global challenges without renouncing their essence.

"It has also revealed and deepened the existing flaws in our economies, – increased inequalities and poverty, environmental and social costs not properly accounted -  that need to be effectively answered.

"It has finally confirmed what we already knew about the risks of excessive dependency in the supply chains and the additional humanitarian costs that conflicts and occupation cause in a time of the pandemic."

The President emphasized that more regional solidarity is needed. 

"We need more and no less multilateralism because defeating cataclysms without borders is only possible with solidarity without borders. The UN must be a leading force in renewing multilateralism,” she said. 

The President noted that multilateral assistance should find new tools to help the global economy as well as developing economies.

She believes that new and comprehensive approaches are needed in relation to loans.

"The idea of global aid, the new Marshall Plan, needs to be explored and supported. The special period deserves a special response. Sustainable development is no longer the choice of tomorrow. The goals of sustainable development are the current necessity,” she emphasized. 

By Ana Dumbadze