President Yoon Seok-yeol expressed his will to contribute to food aid and disease prevention for poor countries at an expanded session at the G7 summit on the 20th .
According to a briefing at the local press center by Senior Secretary for Economic Affairs Choi Sang-mok, President Yoon made this remark at the first expanded session (food, health, development, gender) of the G7 summit held in Hiroshima this afternoon. President Yoon came out as the third speaker on the day.
President Yoon first expressed his will to expand food aid to countries in crisis. Korea has been donating 50,000 tons of rice every year to food crisis countries such as Yemen, Ethiopia, Kenya, and Uganda since 2018 when it joined the United Nations World Food Program (WFP) . Chief Choi said, “President Yoon announced that he would double the size from next year and provide 100,000 tons of support every year.”
The Association of Southeast Asian Nations ( ASEAN, ASEAN) + 3 (Korea, China, and Japan) expanded the emergency rice stockpiling system ( APTERR ) for food crisis countries, and pledged to establish a ‘K- Rice Belt’ to provide food assistance to poor countries. did.
APTERR was launched in 2013 as a public stockpiling system in which each member state agrees to and reserves rice stockpiles in advance in preparation for emergencies such as food shortages and disasters, and sells, provides long-term loans, and provides free support in case of emergency.
Chief Choi said, “Although rice consumption in African countries is increasing, self-sufficiency rates are low, so they depend on imports and lack of foreign currency is flowing out. “We launched a pilot project with six countries including Senegal, Gambia, Guinea, Ghana, Cameroon, and Uganda, and plan to expand our cooperation to more than seven countries, including Kenya, from next year,” he explained. If APTERR is a short-term support, K- Rice Belt is a mid- to long-term support project.
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It supports not only food, but also the response to diseases and pandemics. In this regard, Chief Choi said, “President Yoon emphasized that the Republic of Korea is contributing to improving the health capacity of developing countries through its experience in experimenting with related technologies and policies, recognizing that the gap in health between countries is a bigger problem than viruses and germs themselves.” said. Chief Choi also said, “Korea is a bio-manpower training hub메이저사이트 designated by the World Health Organization ( WHO
) to train vaccine and biopharmaceutical manpower in low- and middle-income countries.” A total of 552 people centered on manpower, and a total of 754 people including online education were provided with high-satisfying education, and we will continue to expand educational facilities in the future.” President Yoon also expressed his willingness to continue supporting the expansion of universal health care and universal health guarantee ( UHC ) in developing countries. It is said that President Yoon emphasized that the health insurance system that Korea introduced and quickly established as a developing country is an exemplary UHC case. Chief Choi said, “President Yoon passed on system design and implementation know-how to developing countries through the KSP, etc. “We will continue to expand,” he said.
It decided to donate 24 million dollars to the Infectious Disease Innovation Coalition. The Infectious Disease Innovation Coalition is a public-private health professional organization launched with the participation of countries such as Norway and the Bill Gates Foundation on the occasion of the World Economic Forum ( WEF, Davos Forum) in 2017 to raise funds for the development of new infectious disease vaccines . The goal was to fund $3.5 billion by 2026. It is expected that our donation amount will increase by nearly three times than before.
In this regard, a high-ranking official in the presidential office explained, “This is a measure for Korea, which has leaped from an aid recipient to a global pivotal country, to participate in expanding freedom from hunger and disease.”