ED: A problem that calls for partnership

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, addressing the 77th annual session of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific, said: “The developed world, development partners, and international financial institutions should come forward in attaining quick recovery from the Covid pandemic.” This is in line with our government’s emphasis on regional cooperation. As we have editorialized several times before, regional cooperation is the way out of many of our problems.

Covid-19 is, after all, nothing if not a shared problem. In fact, it may well be the most global event in history. The concerns of the whole world, across all nations, have now been brought into focus. People are eager to get back to their lives and return to some semblance of normalcy, a new normal though it may be. But for that to happen, we must tackle Covid-19 and we must do so collectively. 

The fact that even more advanced economies of the world, such as the US, the UK, and Canada have struggled to manage various aspects of the pandemic shows that we are truly in uncharted waters here. If we are to get through a crisis in these globalized times, only partnerships can pull us through. We need to share knowledge and resources, not hoard them. 

Managing a pandemic at home will not do much good if Covid-19 keeps freely moving across borders. That is why we need to always focus on the larger picture: Digging our way out of this pandemic, and recovering from the economic toll, is not a competition. We need to help each other out.