Manila eyes purchase of avian flu vaccines from Prague
PRAGUE, Czech Republic – The Philippines is interested in procuring avian flu vaccines from the Czech Republic as Czech agriculture officials make their way to Manila next week.
Marcos said this as he concluded his state visit to the Czech Republic on Friday afternoon, March 15 (Prague time).
In an interview with reporters here, the President said the Philippines is most interested in the possible trade ties that will be forged during the visit.
He particularly raised the possibility of procuring vaccines for avian flu, and possibly swine flu.
“They have technologies to make gamot (medicine) para pagandahin ang lagay ng mga inaalagaan nilang livestock (to improve the condition of their livestock). They have an avian flu vaccine, they are coming close to developing a swine flu vaccine, so iyon ang tinitignan natin (that’s what we’re looking at),” Marcos said.
“Not only will we procure, kung sakali (Not only will we procure, if ever), but hopefully we will use it locally para meron tayong sariling source natin (so we will have our own source),” he added.
On Thursday, March 14, Czech President Petr Pavel announced that their agriculture officials would make their way to Manila on March 21 to establish cooperation that would support the food security initiatives of the Philippines.
He said Czech Agriculture Minister Marek Výborný will lead a delegation of businessmen to show interest in investing in agriculture and other key sectors.
“Very soon our Minister of Agriculture shall visit the Philippines with a numerous delegation of our businessmen with specific, particular plans to offer,” he said.
“We also have companies that are involved in defense industry, manufacturing, in farming and agriculture, science, technology, energy sector, power sector, many of these businesses do have particular plans for the future cooperation with the Philippines,” he added.