The government of Japan on Tuesday decided to extend its Emergency Grant Aid of approximately US$41 million to Vietnam and 24 other countries in Southeast and Southwest Asia as well as the Pacific Islands region that suffer from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

This assistance will provide 25 countries in the Southeast and Southwest Asian and Pacific Island regions with cold chain equipment, including medical equipment such as cold storage facilities and transportation, to ensure vaccination in each country through the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the same day in a press release.

The Southeast Asian recipient nations include Vietnam, Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Thailand, and Timor-Leste.

The Southwest Asian nations are Bhutan, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka.

The remainder consist of Cook Islands, Fiji, Micronesia, Niue, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu, and Vanuatu.

Currently, ensuring equitable access and swift distribution of vaccines is the common challenge for the international community toward the goal of containing COVID-19, the ministry said.

Japan has been contributing to formulating the COVAX Facility, an international mechanism to ensure and accelerate equitable access to vaccines regardless of a country’s income level.

The East Asian country has announced its financial contribution of $200 million to the COVAX Facility.

Japan’s Emergency Grant Aid is aimed at delivering vaccines to each and every person in all the corners of developing countries, which will complement efforts of the COVAX Facility.

Based on its experience in helping build medical supply networks that reach every corner of developing countries, Japan will continue to extend support to deploy vaccines to every person in the world with a view to containing COVID-19 as quickly as possible.

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