Donation to help childhood vaccination along Belt and Road route

China Merchants Charitable Foundation ( CMCF), a charity affiliation of China Merchants Group ( CMG), signed an agreement with the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization ( GAVI) on Thursday to contribute $ 1.5 million from 2017- 19 to support childhood immunization in developing countries and regions, including those along the Belt and Road route.

This multi- year pledge from CMG is the first agreement of its kind signed between GAVI, a public- private partnership committed to saving children’s lives and protecting people’s health, and a private sector company in the Asia- Pacific region.

“CMG has a deserved reputation as a global leader in logistics, supply chain and financial services, and this multi- year pledge underlines the company’s unwavering commitment to making a real difference to the lives of children in developing countries,” said Seth Berkley, CEO of GAVI.

“GAVI offers huge business potential to Chinese companies. And under the Belt and Road initiative, we look forward to strengthening our collaboration with both the Chinese government and the private sector,” Berkley said during the GAVI forum held in Beijing on Thursday.

For example, China has technological expertise in the solar energy sector, a clean energy that can provide power for the cold chain mainly used for transporting vaccines, Berkley noted.

“Different from the infrastructure construction promoted under the Belt and Road initiative, project cooperation in the health industry like this is essentially focused on services, which is more favorable for walking into people’s hearts,” Hu Bo, president of the Belt and Road Medicine and Health Research Institute, told the Global Times during the forum.

The contribution will be disbursed through CMCF and matched by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.