Developing countries often lack the essential infrastructure to help navigate global shocks, like the recent COVID-19 pandemic. As a result, they feel the impacts more acutely and have a harder time recovering, explained President Joe Biden at the recent G7 summit in Germany. To mitigate such impacts, the G7 is launching the Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment.
The United States will mobilize $200 billion in public and private capital over the next five years to invest in health, digital connectivity, gender equality and equity, climate and energy security.
Under the category of health, the United States, its G7 partners, and the World Bank are investing in a new industrial-scale vaccine manufacturing facility in Senegal. When complete, it will have the potential to produce hundreds of millions of doses of vaccines annually.
That’s why the Digital Invest Program is mobilizing $335 million in investment capital for digital connectivity infrastructure and digital financial services that strengthen open, interoperable, reliable, inclusive, and secure digital ecosystems in emerging markets. The U.S. government also supported the bid by an American company, SubCom, for a $600 million contract to build a global subsea telecommunications cable.
History has demonstrated that when women and girls are free to fully participate in society, there is a positive impact across their communities, said President Biden:
“The United States is committing $50 million over five years to the World Bank’s global Childcare Incentive Fund. This public-private partnership supported by several G7 partners will help countries build infrastructure that makes it easier for women to participate equally in the labor force.
In order to protect against climate change, it is vital to invest in clean energy projects. For example, the U.S. just facilitated a new partnership between two American firms and the government of Angola to invest $2 billion in building new solar projects in Angola.
And in Romania, the American company, NuScale Power, will build a first-of-its-kind small modular reactor plant. This will help bring online zero-emission nuclear energy to Europe faster, more cheaply, and more efficiently.
“This isn’t aid or charity,” declared President Biden. “It’s an investment that will. . .boost all of our economies, and it’s a chance for us to share our positive vision for the future and let communities around the world see for themselves the concrete benefits of partnering with democracies.”
Developing countries often lack the essential infrastructure to help navigate global impacts, like the recent COVID-19 pandemic. To mitigate such impacts, the G7 is launching the Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment.
