Statement by

H.E. Mr. Don Pramudwinai, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs of Thailand

at the High-Level ECOSOC Special Meeting on “A Vaccine for All”

16 April 2021

********

Mr. Munir Akram, President of ECOSOC,

Excellencies,

Distinguished participants,

Let me begin by thanking you, Mr. President, for this timely initiative. At this moment in our history, “A Vaccine for All” is indeed the prerequisite for our collective social and economic progress.

Thailand strongly believes that COVID-19 vaccines must be global public goods. We understand this is not an easy endeavor, as we are now seeing a race to procure vaccines and even export control measures.  More than half of the 9.6 billion doses of
COVID-19 vaccines secured by countries around the world are concentrated in only 10 countries. This makes the global effort to end the pandemic much more difficult.

Mr. President,

If we were to overcome and recover from the COVID-19 pandemic, the international community must fully commit to the irrefutable fact that “no one is safe until everyone is safe.” Allow me to offer some thoughts:    

First, global efforts must be directed at improving vaccine manufacturing and distribution capacities to support vaccine rollout worldwide. Towards this end, Thailand will do our part in addition to our financial contribution to the ACT (Access to COVID-19 Tools) Accelerator. By the second half of this year, we will serve as a regional manufacturing location for a viral vector-based vaccine, which is planned to have a capacity to produce up to 200 million doses per year. We are also researching and developing our own vaccines, one of which has already started phase-1 human trial in March. Pending the success of our locally developed and produced vaccines by the end of this year, we hope to contribute to the COVAX facility. We also plan to assist our neighbors with technical know-how on vaccine distribution, especially on cold chain logistics.  

Second, we can turn the COVID crisis into an opportunity to accelerate achievement of health-related SDGs, particularly advancing Universal Health Coverage for all. Basic services and access to vaccines should be based on health considerations and prioritize high risk groups, regardless of nationality.

My third and last point is that we need more meetings such as this one to coordinate vaccination efforts globally with socio-economic recovery strategies. Therefore, an ongoing conversation on equitable access to medicines and vaccines, which has a direct implication on economic and social development, should happen at all bodies of the UN, and we cannot be happier to see ECOSOC taking up this topic.

I thank you.

                                          ***********