Deputy Prime Minister Tran Hong Ha (R) shakes hands with Chairman and General Director of AstraZeneca Vietnam Nitin Kapoor. (Photo: VNA) Hanoi (VNA) – It is necessary to strengthen cooperation
in vaccines and biopharmaceuticals to proactively prevent and control
diseases, Deputy Prime Minister Tran Hong Ha said while receiving Chairman and General Director
of Nitin Kapoor in Hanoi on August 14.
The Deputy PM highly appreciated AstraZeneca’s
valuable and timely support for Vietnam in the fight against COVID-19.
He expressed impression for AstraZeneca’s ongoing
activities in Vietnam, particularly in the fields of vaccines and biopharmaceuticals,
saying that this plays a crucial role in proactively preparing for potential
disease outbreaks in the future.
Vietnam backs AstraZeneca’s commitments to emission reduction
and moving towards carbon neutrality in all its activities, Ha said,
stressing that experience in COVID-19 prevention and control showed that the
world can only push back and end the pandemic if all countries have equal
access to vaccines.
Similarly, the goals related to addressing climate change and
reducing greenhouse gas emissions cannot be achieved if there are countries
that stay “outside” these efforts, he said.
Deputy Prime Minister Tran Hong Ha (R) receives Chairman and General Director of AstraZeneca Vietnam Nitin Kapoor. (Photo: VNA)Ha emphasised the close relationship between human health and
the “health” of the environment, affirming that restoring and
protecting the natural environment is a crucial solution to prevent and reduce the
burden of disease-related costs on people and society due to the pollution of water,
air and waste.
Technology is a “vaccine” to address climate change,
Ha noted, adding that developing countries like Vietnam greatly need support
and access to various solutions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Companies with strong research and development capabilities like
AstraZeneca play a important role in achieving climate change goals such as cutting emissions to net zero, and engaging in the Just Energy
Transition Partnerships () by joining
projects for researching and transferring green fuel production technologies, and
developing smart transmission systems and large-scale energy storage devices, he said.
Mentioning AstraZeneca’s project to plant 22.5 million trees, the Deputy PM assigned the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) and
the Department of Climate Change under the Ministry of Natural Resources and
Environment to work closely with AstraZeneca to effectively perform the
project.
He expressed his hope that AstraZeneca will engage in projects
related to the roadmap for achieving net zero, and JETP in Vietnam, which serve
as experimental and pilot initiatives for global mechanisms.
For his part, Kapoor briefed the Deputy PM on several collaboration programmes and projects
currently underway in Vietnam to strengthen patients’ access to medicines,
develop a sustainable healthcare system, improve public health, and conduct clinical
trials for drugs and biopharmaceuticals.
AstraZeneca is collaborating with Vietnamese agencies and
partners to implement a reforestation and landscape restoration project worth 50
million USD, which aims to plant 22.5 million trees over 30,500 ha, thus creating
conditions for biodiversity development and providing sustainable livelihoods
for more than 17,000 households, Kapoor said.
He noted his hope that the project will serve as a pilot initiative in the
action plan of the National
Steering Committee for implementing Vietnam’s
commitments at the 26th UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26), therefore encouraging other organisations and
businesses to jointly take actions to respond to climate change./.
Source: VietnamPlus
