Dear Colleagues, It is a pleasure to welcome you to Rome today for this G20 Summit.
First, I would like to say that it is wonderful to see you all here, after some difficult years for the global community.
We faced protectionism, unilateralism, nationalism. The pandemic has kept us at a distance – and it has done so with all of our citizens. But we must not make mistakes.
Multilateralism is the best answer to the problems we face today.
In many ways, it is the only possible solution.
From pandemics, to climate change, to fair and equitable taxation, doing all this alone is simply not an option.
We must do everything we can to overcome our differences.
And we must rekindle the spirit that led us to create and strengthen this forum.
About two years after the start of the pandemic, we can finally look to the future with more optimism.
Successful vaccination campaigns and coordinated actions by governments and central banks have enabled the global economy to recover.
Many of our countries have launched recovery plans to boost growth, reduce inequalities and promote sustainability.
Together, we are building a new economic model, and the whole world will benefit from it.
However, we must be alert to the challenges we face collectively.
The pandemic is not over and there are staggering disparities in the global distribution of vaccines.
In high-income countries, over 70% of the population has received at least one dose.
In the poorest countries, this percentage drops to around 3%.
These differences are morally unacceptable, and undermine the global recovery.
We are very close to meeting the WHO target of vaccinating 40% of the global population by the end of 2021.
We now need to do everything we can to reach 70% by mid-2022.
We must also continue to invest in research, remove trade barriers affecting COVID-19 vaccines, and improve predictability in their delivery.
And we need to strengthen global supply chains while increasing production capacity locally and regionally.
As the G20 presidency, Italy has worked to promote a fairer recovery.
The Global Health Summit in Rome saw countries and companies generously commit to providing vaccines to the poorest countries: we must be sure to deliver on our promises.
We have reached a historic agreement for a fairer and more effective international tax system.
We oversaw the allocation of $ 650 billion as new Special Drawing Rights and promoted the ability to redistribute it to the countries that need it most.
These results strongly remind us of the results we can achieve together.
They must encourage us to be equally ambitious in all areas where we work together.
* Speech by the Prime Minister at the 1 G20 session in Rome
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