Vietnam wants ASEAN to create Covid vaccine supply chain

Speaking at the 38th and 39th ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) Summits and Related Summits on Oct. 26, he said the bloc should prioritize two tasks in the coming time, "making efforts to control and adapt to the pandemic, and finding a new political and economic position of the bloc given the context that political-economic relations around the world are being re-forming.

"No citizen is safe when there are still other citizens having Covid-19, and no country is safe when other countries in the region and the world still have to fight the pandemic," PM Chinh told the event, held online on Oct. 26 – 28.

The bloc needs to improve the effectiveness of coordination mechanisms, improve the capacity of the health system, be proactive about vaccines and therapeutic drugs, and raise their people's awareness.

"As one of the ASEAN member states that have been promoting Covid-19 vaccine research and proactively producing vaccines, Vietnam suggested the bloc soon transfer technologies to each other to produce vaccines and drugs to treat Covid-19, forming an autonomous supply chain of the region."

It is necessary to take advantage of the ASEAN Travel Corridor Arrangement Framework created last year to facilitate essential travel within the region, he said.

"The Vietnamese government has approved a set of criteria for the use of vaccine passports and is ready to exchange certificates of Covid-19 vaccination with ASEAN countries, including digital certificates."

The summits are expected to discuss a number of issues, including further strengthening the capacity of ASEAN to achieve post-Covid economic recovery, enhancing its readiness to tackle common challenges and seizing new opportunities to pursue shared prosperity while maintaining cooperation to achieve long-term goals.

Besides leaders of ASEAN countries, the meetings also saw the participation of leaders of dialogue partners China, Japan, the Republic of Korea, India, the U.S., Australia, and Russia, and representatives of other countries.