China commits in supplying COVID-19 vaccines

03:30

China has been committed to making its COVID-19 vaccines a global public good, with a variety of methods including donations and co-production.

One benefactor is the Philippines, which got a new batch of Sinopharm COVID-19 vaccines donated by China on Friday.

"My deepest gratitude goes to China for the various COVID-19 assistance extended in the past, including the donation of vital medical supplies and equipment and the provision to the technical support of COVID-19 response," Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte said in a speech at the virtual ceremony welcoming the vaccines.

Another benefactor is Bangladesh, which will be able to produce 5 million Chinese vaccine doses every month under a cooperation program, a memorandum of understanding signed in Beijing and Dhaka on Monday. Sinopharm will cooperate with Bangladeshi company Incepta to bottle and package the vaccines.

"The only purpose of China is to make vaccines global public goods. That truly serves the peoples' interests, and helps the world defeat the pandemic at an early date," said Li Jiming, Chinese Ambassador to Bangladesh.

Earlier this month, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said China was the first to cooperate with other developing countries with vaccine production, allowing the UAE, Egypt, Indonesia and Brazil to become the first countries in their respective regions to have COVID-19 vaccine production capacity.

"China's international vaccine cooperation has never been associated with any economic or political interests," Wang said at the first meeting of the International Forum on COVID-19 Vaccine Cooperation on August 5, the same forum at which, in a written letter, Chinese President Xi Jinping made China's 2 billion vaccine dose promise.

Vaccine producers said this shouldn't be an issue with Sinopharm saying they can produce 5 billion doses a year now. And over 8 million doses have been delivered abroad so far, mainly to developing countries.

"Now China has provided and is providing vaccine assistance to 105 countries and four international organizations, exporting to over 60 countries, with a total amount of nearly 800 million doses, ranking the first in the world. It covers almost all the areas in the world, and the numbers keep growing," Tian Lin, spokesperson of China International Development Cooperation Agency, said in an interview with CGTN on Wednesday.

Tian also said even when China hadn't yet developed efficient vaccine production capacity in the face of high domestic demand, the country still sought to provide vaccine aid to countries in need.

China has also been active in working with COVAX, the global vaccine initiative for the distribution of vaccines to developing countries. President Xi has pledged $100 million to the facility on behalf of China. Sinopharm and Sinovac have contracted with COVAX to provide 110 million doses by this October, with deliveries already made to Pakistan and Bangladesh this month.

"I welcome the agreements signed by Sinopharm and Sinovac with COVAX, unlocking potential supplies of over 500 million doses. Overall, we need more than 11 billion doses to vaccinate 70 percent of the global population – a key threshold to ending the acute phase of this pandemic," said United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.

As for Bangladesh, Sinopharm said it has provided 3.47 million doses through the COVAX facility to the South Asian nation. It also sent the country 2.1 million doses as gifts, and 8 million in commercial purchases. The just-announced co-production plan is expected to help the country get even closer to its inoculation target.