Vietnam calls for WB support in vaccine research, production

ABO/NDO - Health Minister Nguyen Thanh Long has proposed the World Bank (WB) provide non-refundable aid to help Vietnam with COVID-19 vaccination, as well as vaccine research and production.

The official made the suggestion at a meeting with WB Regional Vice President for East Asia and the Pacific Victoria Kwakwa and WB Country Director for Vietnam Carolyn Turk on June 29.

Illustrative image (Source: VNA).

Long thanked the WB for its support of public health care in Vietnam, and asked for continued help from the bank to the work, especially in COVID-19 prevention and control.

If Vietnam gets loans from the WB, it would build a research and development centre for vaccines and medical biological products, and a vaccine factory in service of the Expanded Immunisation Programme, he said.

Lauding the effective measures Vietnam has taken in the pandemic combat, Kwakwa said the country should roll out a vaccine strategy in tandem with the measures.

Vietnamese ministries and agencies need to coordinate to mobilise unused capital in WB projects in Vietnam, along with other forms of aid and loans, to quickly design a new project for the domestic medical sector, she suggested.

Kwakwa stressed that the WB will work to urge vaccine producers and the COVAX Facility to speed up the supply and delivery of COVID-19 vaccines to Vietnam as scheduled.

Regarding a project on improving Vietnam's capacity for training medical workers, Turk said the project has completed set targets, and is expected to be wrapped up by the year-end.

(Source: NDO)