At the Indian Global Forum 2021, UK chancellor Rishi Sunak spoke on Covidonomics where he stated that he is incredibly positive seeing the steps the government is taking with regards to the economy, and employment opportunities. “The thing I focused most on was jobs. At the start of the crisis, people were forecasting unemployment to reach 12% in the UK. Now they are forecasting it to be half of that,” said Sunak at IGF2021. He added that GDP data is outperforming expectations and he remains cautiously optimistic about the year ahead.
He was asked to comment on a strategy that was put in use to help those who were hit by the pandemic, employment wise. He said that they knew that lockdown would impact people in different ways and especially young people who work in sectors like hospitality. “In such time, my job and government’s job is to protect the vulnerable ones and I think, by and large, we have done that. So, the data shows that our interventions have helped those of lower incomes the most, so that is positive. We also started the kickstart scheme, where the government is helping young people with fully fund high-quality jobs,” added Sunak.
When he was asked to comment on the relations between India and UK, he said that it will be a great opportunity for India and UK to liberalise services trade. “The UK is a heavily service-oriented economy. So is India. UK will be the first European country with which India has pursued a CSA. This is a much broader relationship than just trade. We will be tackling some of the combined security threats. There is lots to be excited about in the relationship. It should be broader and deeper than just trade. And we are super excited about the UK-India relationship. We all have a target of doubling our trade by 2030," added Sunak.
He also mentioned that India is indeed the largest manufacturer of vaccines to other countries, but the UK too participated in the production of vaccines by partnering with Oxford University. “We are very proud to partner with Oxford University and Astra Zeneca to fund and create a vaccine that we’ve made and sold at cost,” said Sunak.
When asked to comment on the relations between China and UK, he said China is a significant global player and if the nations must work together, then there should be cooperation.
He expressed delight over the finance ministers of the G-7 to make climate disclosures mandatory in their economies. He added that they going to do that in the UK as well.
He highlighted the need for private funding for climate-related projects. "We need to unlock hundreds of billions, maybe even trillions, of dollars from the private sector into climate-related projects and investments,” said Sunak at IGF 2021.
