S. Korea to spend $200 million to provide developing countries with COVID-19 vaccines

South Korean President Moon Jae-in pledged to donate funds for vaccinating developing countries to the COVAX Advance Market Commitment at the G7 summit

South Korean President Moon Jae-in attends a session of the G7 summit held in Cornwall, England, on Saturday. From left to right are Moon, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, US President Joe Biden, French President Emmanuel Macron and Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga. (Yonhap News)

While attending the G7 summit, South Korean President Moon Jae-in promised to give US$100 million this year to help provide COVID-19 vaccines to developing countries and to provide US$100 million more next year, either in cash or kind.

The Blue House said that Moon made the pledge in a session on public health on Saturday, the first session of the G7 summit attended by observer states. The summit was held in Cornwall, in the UK.

Moon pledged to donate funds for vaccinating developing countries to the COVAX Advanced Market Commitment (AMC) while stressing that the most critical short-term solution is quickly expanding supply to guarantee fair access to COVID-19 vaccines.

Moon went on to say that South Korea could take advantage of its substantial biopharmaceutical production capacity to serve as a global vaccine hub and expand the vaccine supply, which currently falls short of global demand. He also explained that Seoul could explore vaccine partnerships with other countries, and not just the US.

The public health session was attended by the leaders of the G7 countries, the observer countries — South Korea, Australia, and South Africa — and UN Secretary-General António Guterres. Also attending by video link were Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, and International Monetary Fund Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva.

The leaders in attendance focused their discussion on quickly overcoming COVID-19 by increasing support for the Access to COVID-19 Tools Accelerator program (ACT-A) — including the COVAX AMC — to aid developing countries with vaccination, providing extra vaccines to developing countries, and supporting vaccination infrastructure in developing countries. They also discussed ways to increase the production and supply of vaccines to guarantee fair access to vaccines, therapeutics and diagnostic kits.

ACT-A is an international program set up by the WHO to promote the development, production, and fair distribution of COVID-19 vaccines.

Before the meeting, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who is hosting the summit, said the G7 leaders will agree to expand COVID-19 vaccine production and provide the world with at least 1 billion vaccine doses through international distribution plans.

AP reported that the US has said it will donate 500 million of those 1 billion doses, while the UK plans to donate 100 million and France plans to donate 30 million.

The G7 countries’ agreement to these plans appears to be a response to criticism that their vaccine diplomacy lags behind that of China and Russia, which are actively providing locally produced vaccines to other countries.

By Lee Wan, staff reporter

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