In Brief: DPM Heng participates in G20 virtual meeting

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Finance Heng Swee Keat yesterday participated in the second Extraordinary G-20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors Virtual Meeting.

The video conference discussed the outcomes of the March 26 Extraordinary Virtual G-20 Leaders' Summit, including the development of a Group of 20 action plan to address the Covid-19 pandemic and measures to enhance financial resilience, said Singapore's Ministry of Foreign Affairs in a statement.

DPM Heng said at the meeting: "The Covid-19 outbreak will change the way we view globalisation. Temporary border and other restrictions may be necessary to contain the virus. But we must not make such walls permanent, nor turn inwards. Collaboration is the best and only way to overcome the crisis."

MADRID • Once again, Spain hit a new record with 849 people dying of Covid-19 in 24 hours, hiking the overall death toll to 8,189, the government said yesterday.

The increase came after a day on which the number of deaths had fallen slightly, raising hopes that the epidemic in Spain could be reaching a peak. The country has logged the world's second-highest number of deaths from the coronavirus, after Italy.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

YANGON • Myanmar reported its first coronavirus death yesterday. A 69-year-old man, who also had cancer, died in a hospital in the commercial capital of Yangon, a government spokesman said.

The patient, who was suffering from nasal cancer, arrived in the country on March 14, after a one-month stay in Australia for health treatment and a four-day stay in Singapore.

He passed away yesterday morning in the intensive care unit at Waibargi Specialist Hospital.

Myanmar has confirmed 14 cases of the virus, mostly in people who have travelled overseas. REUTERS, XINHUA

TOKYO • Japan's ruling party has proposed the country's biggest-ever stimulus package, worth 60 trillion yen (S$790 billion), as the spreading coronavirus locks the economy in a recession.

The sum includes 20 trillion yen in fiscal measures, with private initiatives and other elements likely to be making up the rest, according to the proposal by the Liberal Democratic Party yesterday.

More than 10 trillion yen, or the equivalent of a 5 per cent cut in the sales tax rate, would be handed out to the public in a combination of cash, subsidies and coupons, according to the plan.

BLOOMBERG