President Jokowi Lauds Role of ACT-A in Vaccine Development
President Jokowi
President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo has expressed appreciation to the role of the Access to COVID-19 Tools Accelerator (ACT-A) in encouraging the development and equitable access to medicines, diagnostic tools, and vaccines for COVID-19.
“ACT-A is an important part of the world’s health architecture as well as tangible evidence of the benefits of multilateralism. In the future, the role of ACT-A is still very much needed, including to bridge the global vaccination gap. No one is safe until everyone is,” said the President in his speech for ACT-A, which was broadcast on the Presidential Secretariat’s YouTube channel, Wednesday (02/09).
President Jokowi also invited countries and donors to strengthen their support for ACT-A. As President of the G20, Indonesia has set its priority agendas, one of which is strengthening the world’s health architecture.
“The world must be more prepared and more responsive to the health crisis. Every country must have the same opportunity to prepare for the threat of the next pandemic,” he said.
Furthermore, President Jokowi said that various improvements must be made and strengthening the capacity of developing countries must receive special attention. At the same time, developing countries must also be empowered as a solution, he added.
“Developing countries must be part of the supply chain for medicines, vaccines and medical equipment. For this reason, cooperation, research, investment, and transfer of technology are absolutely necessary,” he explained.
According to President Jokowi, solidarity and cooperation are keys to getting out of the pandemic and building a more resilient world’s health architecture.
“The role of the G20 is very important in building a world’s health architecture, including in encouraging health financing support for developing countries. Recover together, recover stronger,” he remarked.
For the record, the ACT-A is an innovative global collaboration to accelerate the development, production and fair access to COVID-19 tests, treatments and vaccines.
It was launched in late April 2020, at an event co-organized by the Director General of the World Health Organization (WHO), the President of France, the President of the European Commission, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. (BPMI SETPRES/UN) (EST/MUR)
