RIYADH: Kingdom of Saudi Arabia pledges a 500-million-U.S. dollar donation to support international efforts to combat the COVID-19 pandemic, the Saudi Press Agency reported.
The move comes in response to the commitment made last month during the Extraordinary G20 Leaders’ Summit.
Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO) Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus thanked the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques and the current president of the G20 for the Year 2020 King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud for Kingdom’s contribution.
Dr. Adhanom said: “I express my great gratitude to the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques and to the Saudi people for their great generosity by donating $500 million, in response to plan to combat the Coronavirus, hoping the rest of the G20 members to follow King Salman step.”
As concerns mount for poorer countries without access to capital markets or adequate health facilities, G20 leaders pledged a “united front” to counter the pandemic amid forecasts of a deep recession.
Following the “virtual summit”, the leaders of the Group of 20 major economies also pledged to work with bodies such as the International Monetary Fund to deploy a “robust” financial package to support developing nations.
So far, the G20 has poured $7 trillion into the global economy to protect and support businesses and stem job losses.