Ambassador of Italy all praise for UAE’S assistance

SHARJAH: The UAE has a pivotal role for Italy to achieve its goal of giving global assistance relative to the Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

Ambassador of Italy to the UAE Nicola Lener told Gulf Today: “Italy, which, in its darkest hour last Spring, received assistance from the UAE, which we will never forget, is participating in a number of initiatives to counter the pandemic, especially in developing countries. In particular, we are part of the Facilitation Council of the Accelerator ACT (Access to COVID19 Tools). We are supporting the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation (GAVI) with $100 million (Dhs367.3 million), of which $20 million (Dhs73.5 million) is targeted to ensure equal access to vaccine in developing countries.

We are also puting the fight against the pandemic and the global recovery as a top priority for the upcoming Italian Presidency of the G20 (in 2021). I am sure that in all these, there will be a wide space for a strong cooperation with the UAE, which has proved to be a generous donor and an efficient logistics hub, also in the health crisis.”

Geneva-based GAVI is a public-private international health partnership whose goal is to continually provide increasing immunisation access to the Third World. Facilitation Council of the Accelerator ACT is another COVID-19 worldwide project of the European Commission (EC). In partnership with the World Health Organisation, its purpose is to equitably deliver and distribute around the world, 245 million courses of therapeutics and 500 million tests by June 2021 and two billion doses of vaccines by December 2021 funded with at least €29 billion (Dhs128.6 billion). The ACT is apart from the EC €16 billion (Dhs69.8 billion) Coronavirus Global Response launched last May.

Lener was interviewed on Monday as the Embassy of Italy in Abu Dhabi, through its Innovitaly initiative, hosted the webinar “COVID-19: Where do we stand with tracing, therapy and vaccine?” in partnership with the Khalifa University of Science and Technology, and the Dubai Future Foundation.

Italy was also a participant at the just-concluded 39th edition of the Sharjah International Book Fair. The country’s participation that featured seven

Italian authors and their literary geniuses in the topics of motherhood and early childhood, was made possible by the diplomatic mission, the Italia Trade Agency and the Italian Cultural Institute, inaugurated in Abu Dhabi this 2020.

Innovitaly was conceptualised as it collaborates with the Khalifa University of Science and Technology, and the Dubai Future Foundation “to explore opportunities to enhance bilateral cooperation between Italy and the UAE” through tie-ups with their respective research centres, universities, companies, start-ups, incubators, and financial centres; looking forward to the Expo2020 Dubai.