Jakarta (ANTARA) - President Prabowo Subianto has informed that Indonesia is ready to donate USD30 million to support the activities and humanitarian tasks of the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI).
"We want to support GAVI in its future work, and we are ready to donate USD30 million," he said while receiving GAVI board chair Jose Manuel Barroso at the Merdeka Palace, Jakarta, on Friday.
He added that the Indonesian Government felt the need to partner with GAVI as a global alliance for continuing humanitarian tasks, especially for dealing with outbreaks and pandemics.
He said that the donation of USD30 million is meant to reflect the country's commitment to supporting GAVI's role.
According to the President, GAVI has been playing an important role in humanitarian efforts across the world. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the alliance provided 110.3 million doses of vaccines for free to Indonesia.
The free vaccine assistance was worth USD684.6 million. GAVI also provided other assistance worth almost USD1 billion to Indonesia.
President Prabowo also emphasized that GAVI's humanitarian efforts concerning the provision of vaccines and immunization have saved the lives of more than 1 billion children in the world, including Indonesia.
"On behalf of the Indonesian people, I would like to thank GAVI; thank your leadership, and your CEO for your commitment to continue this great humanitarian task," he said.
Earlier, Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin emphasized the importance of continuing his ministry's partnership with GAVI to support Indonesia's immunization program and reduce child mortality cases.
In a statement received from the Health Ministry on Thursday, he highlighted the positive impact of GAVI's support since 2002, which has helped Indonesia lower the child mortality rate.
Sadikin drew attention to the fact that earlier, Indonesia still lacked several antigens, but in 2023, the country managed to gain access to the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine, pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV), and rotavirus vaccine.
