Question

corona virus Role of the government ​

Answer 1

Explanation:

• Governments have a role to play in softening the economic impact of Coronavirus.
• From spending on healthcare to business continuity plans, there are various options available.
• A key role of government is to protect the well-being of its people—most crucially and visibly during emergencies such as the recent outbreak of the coronavirus.
• The IMF has $50 billion available in rapid-disbursing emergency financing to help countries suffering from the virus

Hope this answer will be helpful for you.

Answer 2

Explanation:

It is hard to generalize about any one country’s response, although many have followed similar patterns of “lockdown” with differing levels of enforcement. One thing is universal, however, and that is that, when such a crisis happens, people turn to governments to act, and they often have high expectations.

We have seen the importance of the “big state” model take hold across Europe and in the US, where government intervention in the economy, as well as in industry, has been on an unprecedented level. We have witnessed rescue packages not seen since the Marshall Plan, as well as direct state intervention in business and key infrastructure.

This is because, when a crisis of such proportion hits, governments must be agile enough to disregard old norms and move quickly to do everything they can to save lives and support infrastructure and the fabric of society. It is a race against the clock and unlike any normal kind of policymaking.

I want to share some of my experience of what it is like for a government in a major crisis, from my own time in office as prime minister of Pakistan.

One of the hardest tests of my career was managing the relief effort following the devastating earthquake in 2005, during which 73,000 people lost their lives and 3 million were left homeless. It was the worst humanitarian disaster in Pakistan’s history. When the earthquake struck, millions saw their world turn upside down in a matter of seconds.

First, we had to find out what had happened, understand the scale of the problem, and prioritize what needed to be done first. This was hard, as communications were disrupted, roads were blocked and supply lines were cut. The whole machine of government was impacted and had to respond — and quickly. So we galvanized the army, civil society and volunteers to help.

The scale of the disaster meant we were in urgent need of extra funds, so we held a donors’ conference in Islamabad, which raised $6.5 billion for the relief effort. In this, we realized that personally involving world leaders to galvanize support and raise awareness was particularly important. US President George W. Bush, his father George H. W. Bush, as well as Kofi Annan, who came personally to the donors’ meeting, all made a big difference. Volunteers also flew in from across the world, including Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Turkey, the US, the UK, China, the UAE, Iran, Japan, and Malaysia. It was a truly global effort.