ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan on Thursday said D-8 should call for covid-19 vaccine to be treated as global public good, ensure its equity, affordability, enhanced production and timely supply to save lives.

Addressing the virtual summit of D-8 — Organization for Economic Cooperation, PM Imran said we must push back against vaccine nationalism and undue export restrictions on the coronavirus vaccine.

“The global vaccine manufacturing companies should either speed up their production or share the technology and expertise with the developing countries for adequate vaccine supply,” he said.

He also said that in order to address unique financial challenges faced by the developing countries due to covid-19, illicit financial flows should be eliminated and stolen assets should be returned to the developing countries.

“The developing countries have been facing the dilemma of not only saving the people from the deadly virus but also saving people from hunger. Even before the pandemic one-fifth of the young population was unemployed. We owe our youth to turn this around,” he maintained.

Imran Khan said trillions of dollars had worldwide been lost as a result of global economic contraction following covid-19.

He said the virus had taken a heavy toll on poor countries and we needed a high level of commitment in mobilizing financial resources.

The PM said that we should make D-8 more relevant towards the lives of the citizens. He said technological development was the gateway to prosperity.