COVID-19: UN says digitization, clean energy way out of economic crisis

The United Nations Secretary-General, António Guterres, has said digitisation and clean energy have the potential to restore business, improve industrial efficiency and safety as well as fortify critical infrastructure.

Guterres and other world leaders at the third edition of the Global Manufacturing and Industrialising Summit (GMIS2020) themed Glocalisation: Towards Sustainable and Inclusive Global Value Chains in Hannover, Germany, made calls for the placement of advanced technologies at the heart of the global recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.

According to the World Bank, the pandemic is expected to plunge most countries into recession in 2020 with per capita incomes contracting in the largest fraction of countries since 1870.

Also, the World Bank Nigeria Development Update reported that the collapse in oil prices coupled with the COVID-19 pandemic is expected to plunge the Nigerian economy into a severe economic recession, the worst since the 1980s.

Guterres said technology could provide a way out of the economic crises as there had been a leap in digitisation for learning, working, and connecting with others.

In a statement released at the end of the first day of the two-day virtual summit yesterday, Guterres highlighted the many challenges that the pandemic have exposed, and the role that digitisation and clean energy could play in shaping a new paradigm for a more inclusive, sustainable and prosperous future.

The GMIS is a joint initiative by the United Arab Emirates and the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO).