At the reception (Photo: VGP) Hanoi (VNA) – Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh hosted a reception in Hanoi on January 13 for Aurélia Nguyen, Chief Programme Strategy Officer at the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation (GAVI) and former Managing Director of COVAX Facility.
The PM said he is glad to see Nguyen in Vietnam when she returned home to attend Xuan Que Huong (Homeland Spring) programme as a French of Vietnamese origin.
He thanked Nguyen as well as COVAX Facility and international community for providing invaluable support for Vietnam during the most difficult COVID-19 period, making important contributions to Vietnam’s high vaccination rate with nearly 260 million doses, over 70 million of which were donated by COVAX Facility. So far, Vietnam has basically put the pandemic under control, laying a foundation for recovery and development.
As the COVID-19 pandemic remains complicated with the rapid spread of new variant XBB.1.5, the PM suggested GAVI and Nguyen share information about the pandemic and vaccination situation around the world, and at the same time, offer consultancy to Vietnam about vaccine purchase and vaccination in the near future.
Nguyen, for her part, said GAVI is ready to support and further cooperate with Vietnam in vaccine programme, including developing more vaccines for people’s health.
The Vietnamese leader proposed GAVI continue assisting Vietnam in accessing vaccines against other diseases such as dengue fever, firstly to be included in the expanded immunisation programme, as well as in mastering mRNA technology to produce vaccines and biological products, and in developing the pharmaceutical industry in the country.
He asked Nguyen to help connect prestigious foreign experts, organisations and businesses with Vietnamese partners to produce vaccines and biological products./.
