Top Chinese envoy donates US$20,000 to IVI for coronavirus vaccine development

SEOUL, Aug. 25 (Yonhap) -- Chinese Ambassador to South Korea Xing Haiming donated US$20,000 to the International Vaccine Institute (IVI) to be used to develop coronavirus vaccines, the Chinese Embassy in Seoul said Tuesday.

Xing visited the Seoul-based nonprofit organization earlier in the day and made the donation during a meeting with IVI Chief Jerome Kim, according to the embassy.

Xing said IVI has long worked hard to develop and distribute various vaccines for epidemics and has achieved a lot, and that China and the IVI will cooperate and push for exchanges to that end.

Kim thanked Xing for the donation and expressed hope that China will be a key partner in vaccine development by becoming a financial donor for the institute.

IVI was originally created as a United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) initiative with the goal of improving vaccine supplies to developing countries before it became an independent international agency. South Korea provides the IVI with about US$5 million every year.

elly@yna.co.kr
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