Daily Mirror (Sri Lanka)

US $ 300mn boost for COVID vaccine roll out in Asiapacifi­c’s developing economies

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HSBC and the Asian Developmen­t Bank (ADB) this week announced a US $ 300 million financing programme to help the region’s supply chains scale-up to deliver life-saving vaccines at both volume and pace.

The targeted financing will inject the much-needed liquidity into the complex vaccine ecosystem – from sourcing and manufactur­ing through to distributi­on. It will support the ecosystem’s long-term reconfigur­ation to deliver mass COVID19 inoculatio­n programmes durably while ensuring other therapeuti­c areas are not left wanting.

The public-private partnershi­p extends an innovative risk-sharing agreement between HSBC and ADB launched in July 2020, to support PPE suppliers. By leveraging

ADB’S sovereign rating, the programme enables greater private sector participat­ion than would otherwise be possible, leading to higher levels of liquidity. This is critical for developing economies for which trade finance shortages can represent a significan­t barrier to trade and consequent­ly the fight against the pandemic.

Commenting on the launch of the programme, HSBC Global Head of Financial Institutio­ns and Portfolio Management Surath Sengupta said, “The global fight against COVID will only be won when as many people as possible are vaccinated as quickly as possible. This programme’s timely and targeted financing will be a force for good. It will help build robust supply chains that enable a regular flow of vaccines and help ensure developing economies don’t fall behind while delivering health and economic benefits to Asia-pacific and beyond.”

While the arrival of vaccines is a game changer, they are in short supply with the majority reserved by developed economies. A recent ICC Research Foundation study found that the global economy stands to lose up to US $ 9.2 trillion, if government­s fail to ensure developing economies’ access to COVID-19 vaccines. However, HSBC Research shows inoculatio­n progress in Asian economies differs markedly with some in the region still at the start line, due to limited supply of vaccines.

“We are pleased to have supported these deals, which are part of a range of initiative­s we are undertakin­g to extend as much support as we can to our developing member countries so they get access to vaccines as quickly as possible,” said ADB Trade and Supply Chain Finance Head Steven Beck.

“We hope to support more vaccine transactio­ns under our US $ 500-million Vaccine Import Facility, which is part of the Asian Developmen­t Bank’s US $ 9-billion Asia Pacific Vaccine Access Facility.”

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