Light at the end of a long tunnel

Global rethink

Goldberg said because of the pandemic, the world is moving further away from multilateralism toward regionalism as the new face of globalization.

"I would not say it (globalization) is over for good, but it has certainly suffered a considerable setback and I do not believe that it will be revived in its previous form any time soon," she said, adding that many countries were turning inward even before the pandemic.

Sachs disagreed, saying that globalization will actually intensify in the years ahead.

He added that there will be a much-needed opportunity for a return to rationality in the new year.

O'Neill echoed the views, saying that the next four years will be better than the previous four."And it is quite likely that the (Joe) Biden administration will both want to recommit the US to the postwar standards of international governance, including trade," he said.

He described the claim that globalization is over as "too much hype" and "not enough reality".

O'Neill said globalization is driven by consumers all over the world wanting access to the best products they can find wherever they are."Unless this changes, globalization won't stop," he said.

He cited the international cooperation on developing vaccines and other treatments for COVID-19 as "real life examples of why globalization is anything, but in decline".

After British Prime Minister Boris Johnson tweeted his thanks on Dec 8"to our NHS, to all of the scientists who worked so hard to develop the vaccine", Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo took to Twitter to remind him it was "made in Europe".

It was actually much wider than Europe. The first vaccine approved in the UK was jointly developed by US and German companies and manufactured in a facility located in Belgium. Shanghai-based Fosun Pharma invested in BioNTech early in the vaccine development stage and was also involved in its clinical trial.

And all the vaccines developed are based on the COVID-19 genome sequence mapped out by Professor Zhang Yongzhen and his team at Shanghai-based Fudan University School of Public Health and given free to the world on Jan 12, last year.