The country urged yesterday the United States (US) to contribute to the nation’s plan to create its own “vaccine development, manufacturing, and distribution industry.”
Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) Secretary Enrique Manalo told US State Secretary Antony Blinken that he hopes that the United States will extend support to facilitate investments on building local vaccine industry.
“We hope the United States will extend its support to also facilitate investments in capacity building for our local vaccine development, manufacturing and distribution industry,” Manalo said.
Manalo said the Philippines is also grateful to the United States for its substantial and critical support on the country’s Covid-19 recovery efforts.
“The Philippines is grateful for the substantial and critical support of the United States in our Covid-19 recovery efforts,” he said.
“The over 33.6 million donated vaccine doses… have saved millions of lives and supported our economy and health system.” Manalo added.
To ensure that the relationship between Manila and Washington “makes the proud history that we share into a living history for the benefit of Filipinos and Americans alike,” Blinken added, the US “seeks to engage closely” with the Marcos administration.
Top trade partner
“The US remains a top 3 trading partner for the Philippines. American firms are among the largest employers, the biggest tax payers and the highest value exporters here,” Blinken said.
Blinken also said that the US wanted to expand ties on investments from the private sector, as well as public private partnerships.
“We wanna expand those ties on private sector investments, on public-private partnerships and by working together to address leading challenges of the 21st century economy like shaping emerging technologies, strengthening our supply chains, accelerating our transition to a green economy,” he said.
“This is not about getting back to where we were before Covid-19, it’s about moving forward and transitioning all our economies to the needs and events and opportunities that are in the 21st century,” Blinken added.
Marcos was “extremely enthusiastic” on growing the country’s local pharmaceutical industry, according to Indian Ambassador to the Philippines Shambhu Kumaran, who also stated that Indian businesses “are looking forward to a robust partnership.”
Among the nations with the biggest pharmaceutical companies are the United States and India.
Marcos called Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday, but as of the time of publication, no specifics had been disclosed.