GLOBAL COVID-19 SUMMIT
“ENDING THE PANDEMIC AND BUILDING BACK BETTER”
on the Margins of the 76th UN General Assembly High Level Debate
Mr. President,
Mr. Secretary General,
Distinguished panelists,
Ladies and gentlemen!
I would like to thank you for convening this timely discussion.
We are still facing a global health crisis unprecedented in scale for decades. The resulting economic hardship has widened inequalities and exposed the vulnerabilities of the world society.
This situation requires comprehensive and decisive action.
We believe that our first priority must be to urgently increase global access to vaccines.
This is a question of global ethics and solidarity because the unjust ‘vaccine gap’ does not just undermine health, it is a ‘gap multiplier’. We welcome multilateral efforts aimed at providing total of over two billion vaccine doses and improve our collective defenses against global health threats.
Contributing to the global 'herd immunity', Kazakhstan was among the first ten countries in the world to develop its own vaccine – “QazVac”.
Recently, QazVac has been reformulated to protect against the Delta stem.
As of today, 31% of the Kazakh population is fully vaccinated. We offer our citizens a sufficient supply of several vaccines so that they can choose.
To meet the noble ideas and goals of this Summit, we have elaborated precise plans and pledges domestically.
Within Kazakhstan, we introduced legislation to create National Biosafety System. We are striving to build a comprehensive and high-tech bio-threat forecasting structure in accordance with international standards.
We commend the U.S. leadership and President Biden’s commitment to ensuring collective actions by developing partnership within Build Back Better for the World initiative.
Kazakhstan therefore joins you today in endorsing the proposed targets and stands ready to contribute to achieving those goals.
Out of our experience and based on scientific researches, I would like to offer today our suggestions on implementing comprehensive measures.
First, we must focus on enhancing capacity building globally.
We need to advance WHO endorsed Almaty Declaration’s essential principles on primary health care, including Primary medical sanitary aid.
We must collectively do more to prevent future biological accidents and crises. With that in mind, last year I proposed to establish International Biosafety Agency. Practical consultations with all stakeholders are underway and we welcome partners to this initiative.
Second, it is important to work on mutual recognition of vaccine certificates to help global travel and business deal with Covid-19.
Health certificates would facilitate a safer reopening, faster post-pandemic economic recovery, and create job opportunities.
Third, we must utilize social media tools to build confidence on COVID-19 vaccines.
There is a doubt or distrust that rooted in scarcity of science based media. We have to lean on facts, making clear the importance of getting vaccinated to build confidence among the population.
We must indeed “build back better”, but we must also “build forward new” – a new world that is more equitable, sustainable, environmentally friendly and humane.
Thank you.