ADB urged: Help countries gain vaccine access

MANILA, Philippines — Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III urged the Asian Development Bank (ADB) yesterday to “take a lead role” in enabling developing member-countries like the Philippines gain access to vaccines against COVID-19.

During the symposium of finance ministers on the sidelines of the second stage of the 53rd Annual Meeting of the Board of Governors of the bank, Dominguez encouraged ADB to convene a working group with the World Health Organization, World Bank, Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank and other multilateral agencies that can provide advisory and technical assistance to developing countries in vaccine production and procurement.

“With the number of ongoing developments for COVID-19 vaccines worldwide, we encourage the Asian Development Bank to take on the lead role in ensuring accessibility of these treatments to those who need it most,” said Dominguez.

This working group, he said, can support the organization of country-level technical working groups or task forces on vaccine procurement.

Likewise, it can establish a common information portal that will provide member-countries with updates on COVID-19 vaccine development.

Countries can also be provided technical assistance on pursuing bilateral procurement and manufacturing contracts with vaccine suppliers.

He also urged ADB and other multilateral organizations to help developing member-countries package financial assistance for the provision of vaccines to their “most impoverished and vulnerable populations.”

Funding support may be provided to private firms willing to establish vaccine production facilities in member-countries, said Dominguez. “A coordinated approach to the procurement of vaccines and mobilization of financing for this purpose will greatly help developing countries restore the vitality of their economies,” he said.

ADB projects a deeper decline of 7.3 percent in the Philippine economy this year with subdued private consumption and investment seen for the rest of the year amid the pandemic.

The economy is expected to rebound next year to a growth path of 6.5 percent as the contagion is controlled, the economy opens further and more government stimulus measures are implemented.

Recovery by 2021, however, is challenged by downside risks such as a recovery in the global economy that may be slower than expected, thus weakening trade and investment, as well as remittances by overseas Filipino workers.

Despite expectations that a vaccine against the new coronavirus that causes COVID-19 will be available by next year, ADB’s revised outlook for developing member-countries was made under the assumption that countries will be able to arrest the infection by other means.

This was because even if a vaccine becomes available in the market sooner, developing countries like the Philippines may have to reconcile with the possibility that it may not be able to secure supplies immediately.

Abdul Abiad, director of macroeconomics research at ADB, said the prevailing “vaccine nationalism” will see developed countries corner initial supplies for the use of their own citizens.

“If the vaccine does become available sooner, one needs to temper that with the fact that even if the vaccine becomes available sooner, whether it becomes available to developing Asia is another question,” said Abiad on Tuesday.

“So there is this whole issue of vaccine nationalism and the danger that countries compete for who can get the vaccine first.”

As early as now, advanced economies have been placing pre-orders for billions of doses of the vaccine against COVID-19 even as those under development have not yet completed clinical trials.