Japan's Aozora Bank donates 5 million JPY to Vietnam’s COVID-19 vaccine fund

Illustrative photo (Source: VNA)

Tokyo (VNA) – The Tokyo-based Aozora Bank, on July 1, handed over the Vietnamese Embassy in Japan a token of 5 million JPY (45,000 USD) worth of its donation to Vietnam’s COVID-19 vaccine fund.

At the handover ceremony, Ito Takeshi, Managing Executive Officer at Aozora Bank, lauded the Vietnamese Government’s idea to set up the fund and hoped the donation will help the country promptly supplement its vaccine supply.

Lam Thi Thanh Phuong from the Vietnamese Embassy in Japan considered the donation one of important driving forces for the Vietnamese Government to accelerate its vaccination drive and soon place the pandemic under control.

The embassy then guided Aozora to directly transfer its financial assistance to the fund’s public bank account.

At the handover ceremony (Photo: VNA)

Compared to Japan, Vietnam, in overall, has better controlled the pandemic and logged less number of infections, Ito Takeshi told Vietnam News Agency correspondent. This was thanks to the Government’s quick and drastic implementation of prevention measures like quarantine, he added.

He shared that Aozora with its close relations with Vietnam decided to make its contribution when learning that the country is facing a shortage of vaccines, hoping that the local socio-economic activities will get back to normal as early as possible.

Founded in 1957, Aozora joined the Vietnamese market in 1997 as a founder of the Vietnam International Leasing Company (VILC), the first of its kind in Vietnam.

In June 2020, it became a shareholder of Vietnam’s Orient Commercial Joint Stock Bank (OCB)./.