Global Leaders Gather in Bangkok Amid Debt, Ebola Fears
By Patience Ikpeme
Ministers, business chiefs and development leaders have begun a week of major international meetings in Thailand, at a time when many countries are weighed down by heavy debts, food and fuel are getting more expensive, and new challenges from artificial intelligence (AI) are growing.
More than 18,000 people from 191 countries are expected at the Annual Meetings of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank Group, which are taking place in Bangkok.
A United Nations finance expert who has followed the meetings since 2010, Eric LeCompte, said the mood is a worried one. “The IMF is raising serious concerns on the state of a global economy that appears to be getting worse,” he said. According to him, the talks are being shaped by the threat of high national debts, AI and rising food and fuel costs.
Before the meetings opened, a campaign was launched by the Jubilee USA Network, urging the IMF to help stop Ebola and strengthen healthcare in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Jubilee USA is a coalition drawn from both major political camps in the United States, made up of religious groups and representing more than 700 faith institutions, development groups and labour unions worldwide. It wants the IMF to give the DRC at least $205 million in debt relief and aid.
Mr LeCompte, whose organisation worked with the IMF during the 2013 Ebola outbreak and the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic, said the current outbreak has already killed at least 4,200 people. “The current Ebola crisis took at least 4200 lives and if we fail to contain Ebola, we face another major threat to the global economy,” he said. He added that the solution is within easy reach. “This is low-hanging fruit as the IMF already holds the tools to address this Ebola disaster.”
The DRC will pay the IMF about $205 million in debt over the next 12 months. Jubilee USA says these payments can be wiped out through the IMF’s Catastrophe Containment and Relief Trust (CCRT). The same fund was used during the 2013 Ebola outbreak in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia, and again during the COVID-19 pandemic, when 28 of the world’s poorest countries received debt relief.
The group also pointed to another IMF facility, the Resilience and Sustainability Facility, which offers loans on easier terms. It says the CCRT can do even more than cancel debts. “The great secret of the CCRT is that not only can it cancel debt, it was used to provide grant-like aid in 2013 when the IMF provided financing and then the CCRT was used to cancel that new debt,” Mr LeCompte explained. In simple terms, the IMF can first lend money to a country and then cancel that loan, so that it works like a grant.
Jubilee USA also drew attention to the growing number of natural disasters, including the floods now affecting Thailand. Mr LeCompte, who has attended every annual meeting since 2018, said all those held outside the United States in that period have been hit by disasters.
“You can see the harm the floods are causing in Bangkok and outside of the city still impacting more than 3 million people,” he said. “As natural disasters increase, the international community will need to provide more tools for relief and aid.”
More than 21 Thai provinces are still affected by flooding. The 2018 meetings in Indonesia faced floods and typhoons, and the country’s early warning system stopped working. In 2023, deadly earthquakes struck Marrakesh, Morocco, weeks before world leaders arrived for the meetings.
For Nigeria and other African countries, which also carry heavy debts and feel the pressure of high food and fuel prices, the outcome of the discussions on debt relief and disaster support will be closely watched.
