COVID-19 Exposes Need To Boost Public-Private Cooperation In Hybrid Crises - UK Lawmaker

MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 20th November, 2020) The current COVID-19 pandemic and growing hybrid challenges have exposed the need for Western countries to strengthen public-private cooperation in ensuring seamless coordination in the event of a crisis, Baroness Lilian Pauline Neville-Jones, a member of the UK's House of Lords, said on Thursday.

Neville-Jones spoke at an online conference organized by Brussels-based think tank Friends of Europe.

"COVID has revealed that we need a new approach to the resilience in the Western countries. The resilience needs to be incorporated into governments' departments which have to be connected to the private sector. I think that we are living in the world where likelihood of the impact of different situations has become more frequent. COVID, climate change are just a few examples," Neville-Jones, who served as minister of state for security and counter-terrorism under David Cameron, said.

According to the lawmaker, the partnership with the private sector should be about formulating policies together ahead of a crisis, as the private sector is often a target and victim of hybrid attacks and crises, but also often a solution provider.

"Private sector in the end is not only a victim but also a solution provider. What we must learn: it has to be a partnership between the two and the government here has to take the lead and decide where are those most critical areas for it," she continued.

The ex-minister highlighted the role that the private sector in the West played during the COVID-19 crisis. She noted that despite the challenges that arose because of the pandemic, the business had found itself in the forefront of innovation, trying to get a product to the market quickly for customers' convenience and commercial advantage.

The baroness expressed the belief that the private sector globally had become more security- and resilience-conscious amid the health crisis.