New Zealand hasn’t even opened up to Australia yet – but an American economist and UN adviser says the Asia-Pacific should consider opening a region-wide, Covid-free travel zone
New Zealand and other Asia-Pacific countries which have kept Covid-19 under control should consider opening up a mega-bubble of two billion people for travel and tourism, American economist Jeffrey Sachs says.
Sachs, an adviser to the United Nations, has also endorsed the approach of placing public health above economic growth, saying there cannot be any sustained economic recovery with large-scale transmission of the virus.
Speaking to the Oceania Connect Regional Conference, a virtual gathering of international aid and development NGOs from around the Pacific, Sachs said the Asia-Pacific was handling the pandemic better than any other region in the world, in part due to the geographic advantages of some countries.
“The islands do have an advantage because you can monitor every visitor…[and] you can stomp on any outbreak before it spreads, and it is extremely important that you do so.”
He offered particular praise for Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, saying New Zealand “arguably has the best leader in the world”.
“If I had to pick one leader in the world exemplifying decency, humanity and competence, I would pick her.”
“Stop the pandemic, even at significant cost early on, because there cannot be any sustained economic recovery with large-scale transmission of the virus.”
Contrasting the relatively good picture in the Asia-Pacific region with the “continental-scale mess on our hands” in the United States, Sachs said it was clear that wealth alone could not stop a pandemic.
“A poor country can stop a pandemic if the governance is good, and a rich country can suffer terribly if the government is bad. This is a case where wealth or income is not predictive of the outcome, what is predictive of the outcome is seriousness of government.”
The highest priority in the world had to be keeping the virus under control in countries where that was already the case, and taking additional suppression measures in places where it could be brought under control.
“There is no way to keep the economy functioning in the midst of a rampant pandemic. In the case of Covid-19, public health is good economics.
“Stop the pandemic, even at significant cost early on, because there cannot be any sustained economic recovery with large-scale transmission of the virus.”
In regions where Covid-19 was under control, such as the Asia-Pacific, it should be possible to open up travel and tourism “within a group that has substantially contained the pandemic, as long as there is very, very active surveillance”.
Sachs said he had been advocating for a group including Japan, China, Korea, Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific islands to form a large-scale travel zone given their containment of the virus.
“It’s not quite a bubble because it is two billion people, but [you could] form a group of countries that has [got] the pandemic near zero and therefore can re-establish tourism, movement of people, trade, but with a lot of surveillance and protection in doing so.”
The pandemic had been a significant setback for the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, but he hoped Covid-19 would be a wake-up call for countries when it came to social and environmental crises.
Sachs cited the European Green Deal, a commitment by EU members to decarbonise Europe by 2050, as an example of the ambitious thinking and strategy needed around the world.
