Doha: Minister of Finance H E Ali bin Ahmed Al Kuwari has said that multilateralism today is needed more than ever to address global challenges. Addressing Doha Forum, the Minister of Finance said that Qatar believes that everybody benefits from interconnected inclusive multilateralism and tries its best to play a role of global team player pursuing, along with its international partners, global public goods.
Speaking during the session titled ‘Economic Crises and Coordinated Global Recovery Efforts: Towards An Inclusive Multilateralism’, the Minister said that “We need to facilitate mediation and peace and this is what is Qatar has been all about. Highlighting Qatar’s role in Afghanistan, Libya and many other countries, the Minister said, “We have been facilitating peaceful solutions”.
“You always need this multilateralism in a way where you have different roles for everybody. The world will be a good place if such conflicts are resolved in peaceful manners,” he added.
The minister said that the dire need for renewed inclusive multilateralism was highlighted by the global economic crisis resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic.
Despite the limitations of multilateralism, the global community must strive for international cooperation to mitigate the risks of transnational global challenges. The world needs a stronger, more inclusive, and more innovative global system to overcome global challenges.
He said that volatility in the oil and gas prices is not in anybody’s interest and stressed the need for energy prices to be fair for both producers and consumers. “We need stable and fair prices that can be supported by the supplier as well as the buyer. This is what our interest.”
Minister of Finance H E Ali bin Ahmed Al Kuwari said that there is currently a shortage of oil supply in global markets estimated at 2 million barrels a day which led to the increase in prices.
He also noted that the world is witnessing a shortage of gas supplies, and that it would take years to bring the market to balance. He added that Qatar is linked to long-term contracts, and that the country would need four to five years to raise its production capacity by 60 percent.
Speaking during the session, Kristalina Georgieva, Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund, also stressed the importance of stability as necessary to peace, saying “the root cause [of the current economic situation] is the war in Ukraine. The faster the tanks are out, the faster the tractors are in.”
Georgieva also highlighted the IMF’s role in protecting people, saying: “We calculated at the IMF that the pandemic cost the world economy 30.8 trillion dollars and billions to vaccinate people. So we spend trillions to protect billions.”
IMF Managing Director stressed that comprehensive multilateralism is the approach for dealing with crises, noting the shock suffered by the world, which is still recovering from the repercussions of COVID-19 during the war in Ukraine, which ravaged various economic expectations, as the world hoped to reduce inflation rates and increased growth to find themselves in an opposite situation.
The geopolitical tensions create great pressure on recovery efforts so it is important not to lose sight of the group that will pay the price, namely the poor, she said, noting that sanctions were the correct approach.
She said that the world will pay the price for this war, especially in light of the large flows of Ukrainian immigrants. The number of displaced people from Ukraine has reached 3 million people highlighting the need to end this war, she said.
