Global South needs to form new partnerships to reflect voice on decision-making table: Union Commerce Minister

New Delhi [India], January 13 : Union Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal on Friday said that the Global South needs to forge new partnerships and mechanisms so that its voice is reflected on the decision-making table.
"We need to forge new partnerships and mechanisms so that the voice of the global south is reflected on the decision-making table," Goyal said at the Commerce and Trade Ministers' Session of The Voice of Global South Summit.
Ministers from 13 countries joined Goyal for the session under the theme of 'Developing Synergies in Global South: Trade, Technology, Tourism, Resources'.
The commerce minister said that: "'Developing Synergies in Global South: Trade, Technology, Tourism, Resources', is an apt theme in the circumstances we find ourselves in at this juncture. These are the key pillars for the development of the countries of the south."
The minister said that the south is faced with various challenges including the consequences of geopolitical tensions.
"We are faced with various challenges including the consequences of geopolitical tensions. The global economic recovery is fragile and weak and the growth rate of global trade has slowed down. A sustainable recovery in this scenario is possible only if we all work together," Goyal said.
According to the minister, the COVID pandemic has shown that we need to build resilient supply chains. "During the pandemic, India provided free wheat and rice to 800 million people across the country and also supplied food grains to several other countries in need," Goyal said.
"In India, for sustainable food security, we are promoting traditional food grains like millet which are rich in nutrition," he added.
He also said that the global south contributes to more than half of the world's economic growth.
Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya on Friday said that India believes in value-based health care and is continuously striving to provide high-quality and cost-effective health care to everyone.
"India believes in value-based health care and is continuously striving to provide high quality and cost-effective health care to everyone," Mandaviya said during the health ministers' virtual session of Voice of Global South Summit, 2023 titled 'Cooperation to build resilient healthcare systems'.
"Aligning with India's philosophy of Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam, India has offered Co-WIN as a digital public health good to the world," the health minister said while addressing the virtual session.
Mandaviya said it is the need of the hour to focus on long-term measures to build stronger, more resilient health systems.
"It is the need of the hour to focus on long-term measures to build stronger, more resilient health systems that can prevent, prepare for, and respond to future health-related challenges while maintaining essential health services," he said.