When disasters like the COVID-19 pandemic strike, developing countries that lack essential infrastructure suffer more and take longer to recover, President Biden said.
“In our deeply connected world, that’s not just a humanitarian concern, it’s an economic and a security concern for all of us,” Biden told the Group of Seven (G7) Summit in Schloss Elmau, Germany, on June 26.
He and the other leaders of the democratic nations in the G7 launched the Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment to support development of sustainable, quality infrastructure in developing and middle-income countries.
Through the partnership, the G7 nations of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States aim to mobilize $600 billion in public and private funding for infrastructure by 2027. The United States is seeking to mobilize $200 billion for the partnership in the next five years.
The partnership will make energy, health care and telecommunications more accessible through projects that reflect the G7 democracies’ shared values by following global best practices for transparency, partnership, and protecting labor and the environment.
In a June 26 memorandum on the partnership, Biden says infrastructure has long been underfunded in the developing world, leaving an estimated need of over $40 trillion.
To fight COVID-19 and other diseases, the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation, in collaboration with G7 nations, the European Union and other partners, provided $3.3 million to build capacity for industrial-scale vaccine manufacturing in Senegal.
Other projects planned to improve lives and increase prosperity include:
- U.S. companies’ partnership with Angola’s government to build a $2 billion solar project that will help Angola meet its climate commitment to generate 70% carbon-free power by 2025.
- A U.S. telecommunications firm’s $600 million plan to build 17,000 kilometers of undersea telecommunications cable, connecting countries between Singapore and France, including Bangladesh, Djibouti, Egypt, India, the Maldives and Pakistan, with reliable, high-speed internet.
- Plans to mobilize $335 million to invest in companies in Africa, Asia and Latin America to deliver secure and resilient internet service in developing countries.
- The U.S. Agency for International Development’s goal of committing $50 million over five years to the World Bank’s new Childcare Incentive Fund supporting child care to boost women’s employment opportunities in countries such as Bangladesh, Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Honduras and Liberia.
“We’re offering better options for countries and for people around the world to invest in critical infrastructure that improves” lives, Biden said.
