The country’s finance chief said a partnership between the public and private sector would be needed in the production of vaccines in the Asean region, to ensure efficiency and to temper “corporate greed.”
Carlos Dominguez, Department of Finance secretary, said during the 45th Asian Development Bank (ADB) Annual Meeting Governors’ Seminar held virtually Monday evening Asean and the ADB should establish “some kind of ability” to produce vaccines for the region.
Dominguez, however, said he does not foresee this to be a totally government-driven enterprise, as it must be in partnership with the private sector.
“Private sector brings in efficiency, and frankly, in my experience as a government minister, efficiency is not number one in our DNA. I think a partnership with both, where the goals and the profit, the return on investment, are very, very clearly defined,” Dominguez said.
“I strongly believe that the private sector should be involved, and so must government to moderate corporate greed. But their methods are so important, so I think a PPP or private public partnership is called for in this area,” he added.
“In India, large manufacturers are totally private, and they do cooperate with the regulator not only for safety, but… also to have a… social conscience,” Dominguez said.
Dominguez earlier pointed out that to achieve the world’s safer recovery from the pandemic, there should be just and equitable distribution of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccines to include lower-income countries.
“The COVID-19 pandemic had a massive global economic impact. Unfortunately, the response to the crisis has been uneven,” he said.
Dominguez noted that developed countries have been able to extend much higher levels of financial support to their people and to undertake mass inoculations at a faster pace than the developing economies because of their vast financial resources.
“The Philippines, therefore, supports the strong call for developed countries, multilateral institutions and global organizations to join forces in ensuring the accessibility of these life-saving doses to lower-income economies,” Dominguez said.
