WTO General Director hails Viet Nam’s development success story

Okonjo-Iweala highly appraised cooperation between the WTO and Viet Nam, adding that WTO Ministerial Conference on Agreement on the Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures will be held by in February this year, expecting that Viet Nam will attend the event.

Pham, for his part, said that Viet Nam always appreciates cooperation and assistance of the WTO.

He expressed his concerns about protectionism and new standards related to climate change, referring to the difficulties that developing economies face due to these barriers.

He suggested the WTO provide technical assistance for developing nations, including Viet Nam to overcome these challenges.

At a meeting with Tedro Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the World Health Organisation (WHO), the Prime Minister Pham thanked WHO for its support for Viet Nam to contain the COVID-19 pandemic, re-open the borders and embark on socio-economic recovery.

Viet Nam called on countries to unite and uphold multilateralism and a global and people-based approach in responding to global issues, including epidemics, he stated, hailing the leading role of the UN and especially WHO in this process.

The WHO leader pledged to continue assisting Viet Nam in disease prevention and control and health care technology transfer, and asked for Viet Nam's support for negotiations for a Pandemic Preparedness Treaty towards the conclusion of the process in May 2024.

During his meeting with Chair of the Board of the Vaccine Alliance (GAVI) Jose Manuel Barroso, Pham lauded the role of the alliance and Barroso himself in promoting the equal allocation of vaccine globally, especially in developing countries, during the pandemic period.

He highly valued the alliance's effective cooperation with the health sector of Viet Nam through providing financial support in adding new vaccines to the Expanded Program on Immunization (EPI) for Vietnamese children and implementing activities to eliminate measles and rubella and enhance vaccination quality, and supplying cold storage for vaccine preservation.

The Vietnamese Government leader called on GAVI to continue providing vaccines to Viet Nam to prevent diseases and epidemics, build a concentrated vaccine trading center at the Ministry of Health's headquarters, and transfer mRNA vaccine production technology to Viet Nam.

Viet Nam is willing to exchange vaccines with GAVI to facilitate vaccine access globally, the PM asserted.

Barroso hailed Viet Nam's success in controlling COVID-19, and pledged to help the nation access vaccines for diseases, especially for the EPI, and build strategies and plans to receive the mRNA vaccine production technology.

The alliance will also help connect Viet Nam with experts and reputable businesses in vaccine production, he added./.