Vietnamese Prime Minister Phạm Minh Chính on Wednesday had talks with Managing Director of the COVAX Facility Aurélia Nguyen as part of his trip to France. — Photo from the Việt Nam Government Portal

PARIS — Vietnamese Prime Minister Phạm Minh Chính on Wednesday met with Managing Director of the COVAX Facility Aurélia Nguyen, during which he thanked the COVAX programme for its commitment to providing Việt Nam with 38.9 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines free of charge in 2021, with nearly 23 million doses having been delivered to the country. 

The PM underlined that with the determination and efforts of the Government and support of international friends, including the important assistance of COVAX and other countries through the programme, as well as high consensus from the community, Việt Nam has basically put the domestic COVID-19 outbreaks under control. 

Việt Nam has now transitioned into its new strategy for safe and flexible adaption to and effective control of the pandemic, recovery and promotion of socio-economic development, and gradual resumption of economic and tourism activities, he said. 

Stressing that Việt Nam is in need of more coronavirus vaccines as soon as possible, the PM proposed that COVAX continue to allocate and transfer the remaining vaccines to Việt Nam in November, and continue allocating more vaccines to Việt Nam. 

He said that the Vietnamese Government has decided to voluntarily contribute an additional US$500,000 to COVAX, raising the country’s contribution to $1 million, he said. 

For her part, Aurélia Nguyen spoke highly Việt Nam’s COVID-19 vaccination efforts so far, adding that COVAX Facility has decided to allocate an additional 9 million doses of Pfizer and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines to Việt Nam, on top of the previous commitments, and will deliver them to Việt Nam as soon as possible. 

She affirmed COVAX will continue to accompany Việt Nam in pandemic prevention and control, by providing more vaccines and technical support for vaccination, and boosting coordination in seeking vaccine sources under the cost-sharing mechanism.

Nguyen highly valued and thanked the Vietnamese Government for deciding to make the additional contribution to COVAX Facility, thereby showing the country’s sense of responsibility and international solidarity, especially when Việt Nam is a developing country still facing many difficulties. 

She underlined that Việt Nam’s decision at this time is significant in the context that COVAX Facility is to call on the international community to increase contributions to the programmee in the next few weeks. 

She expressed her hope that Việt Nam will spread this spirit and call on regional countries, ASEAN member countries as well as partners and businesses to continue to support global efforts to get 70 per cent of the population inoculated by mid-2022. — VNS