South Africa supports in G-20 universal access to Covid-19 vaccine

South Africa's President Cyril Ramaphosa on Sunday called on the G20's leaders to guarantee all countries have universal, fair and equitable access to vaccines against Covid-19, when they are available.

On speaking at the first session of the G20 virtual summit, arranged by Saudi Arabia, the president also advocated improving infrastructure and healthcare systems across Africa.

Right now, Ramaphosa said, we have to face the financial and economic aftermaths of the pandemic.

Economic activity in the Africa region, he assured, will contract 3.2 percent in 2020 with the entire continent slipping into recession for the first time in 25 years.

Now, we have the opportunity to drive global economic transformations, which would include a reform of the World Trade Organization to address current imbalances in the rules of global trade, as well as the adoption of measures to accelerate industrialization in developing countries, the head of State emphasized.

At the meeting, Ramaphosa urged the G20 member countries to convince all donor nations, multilateral development banks and the private sector to tackle the problem of 'unsustainable debt of developing countries.'

In addition, the ruler affirmed, we must accelerate the implementation of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals to strengthen the capacity of all countries to better withstand the impact of future crises.