FII speakers talk on lessons from the pandemic

The Future Investment Initiative (FII) summit discussed the coronavirus pandemic and the lessons learnt from it, with speakers on the first day of the conference emphasizing the need for increased use of technology and government support to the private sector in driving the global economic recovery post-COVID-19.

“Moving on (from the pandemic) requires resilience and additional efforts to ensure we regain what we lost in 2020 and move forward progressively, to global economic path,” Prince Abdulaziz Bin Salman Al-Saud, Saudi Minister of Energy, said during a panel discussion yesterday, Jan. 27, 2021.

“The pandemic taught us how to come out of the state of denial, in which we thought that constant damage to the environment was not going to affect future generations,” Dr. Harsh Vardhan, India’s Minister of Health and Family Welfare, Science and Technology, Earth Sciences, emphasized.

Dr. Ali Parsadoust, founder and CEO, Babylon Health, UK, stated that “what we should learn from the pandemic is that the model of healthcare systems waiting for things to break down or crises to happen is a model we should abandon.”

Andrew N. Liveris, Special Advisor, Public Investment Fund (PIF) noted that the virus has shown us that “big ships can be stopped by little particles.”

Meanwhile, Adena Friedman, president and CEO, Nasdaq, emphasized that there are more investment strategies starting to focus on addressing the societal issues laid bare as a result of COVID.

“Creativity is absolutely essential when dealing with challenges, such as the pandemic,” asserted Jean Todt, President, Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile, France.