Top officials during the virtual meeting.

Obaid Humaid Al Tayer, UAE Minister of State for Financial Affairs, recently participated in the meeting that was held by Kristalina Georgieva, Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), with the governors of the Mena region, Afghanistan and Pakistan on the sidelines of the 2021 IMF/World Bank Spring Meetings.

The meeting took place virtually and discussed the latest developments related to the COVID-19 pandemic and its repercussions on various global sectors.

Abdulhamid Saeed, Governor of the Central Bank of the UAE, along with finance ministers, central bank governors and leaders of regional financial institutions of the Mena region, Afghanistan and Pakistan participated in the meeting. During his speech, Al Tayer praised the IMF’s efforts to mitigate the repercussions of the unprecedented global health crisis.

Al Tayer stressed on the importance of this meeting as a platform to share views and devise sound and effective solutions to mitigate the pandemic’s repercussions and achieve post-pandemic economic recovery.

Al Tayer noted that the road to economic recovery will require ensuring an effective, affordable, and equal rollout of vaccines, particularly for Low-Income Countries. This could expedite the pace of economic development and global recovery and prevent further economic deterioration.

Al Tayer said: “In the UAE, we have recently launched our revised industrial strategy, which aims at increasing the contribution of manufacturing activities by 126 per cent in the next 10 years.

In this context, we have expanded our pharmaceutical capabilities to mass-production levels and have started to produce the UAE’s Hayat-Vax vaccine for COVID-19, with a target of producing 200 million doses per year.

Currently, the UAE ranks second globally in the COVID-19 vaccination campaign, with 84 administered per 100 people in the UAE.”

On the fiscal and monetary policy, Al Tayer said: “There is a strong need for a timely and delicate approach to policy normalisation and unwinding of fiscal and monetary expansionary measures.

Any rapid tightening of global financial conditions will have a severe impact on emerging markets and developing economies. The role of the Fund in this regard will be crucial, both in terms of coordinating with Central Banks, and developing a comprehensive communication strategy with members and global markets.” For this critical period, Al Tayer stated the UAE’s priorities. His Excellency said: “First, The UAE now ranks number 1 in the region in the 2021 Global Gender Gap Report.

To this end, we acknowledge the importance of the global inclusion agenda and we will continue to prioritise these objectives. Second, we are proud to have been home to the first UAE-based technology company to list on the New York Stock Exchange.

This is not just a demonstration of the UAE’s commitment towards digital transformation, but is also a statement on the strength of the UAE’s digital economy, through which digitally delivered services and exports play an integral part.

This is key as digitisation has proven to be a strong enabler to sustain productivity during the outbreak, which has reiterated the importance of a competitive ICT sector that is supported by resilient and secure digital infrastructure.