Private sector to fund own vaccine rollout, says Duterte adviser

MANILA, Philippines — The private sector is “willing to pay for everything” to ensure that the rollout of the vaccines will be “at lightning speed.”

Following the arrival of vaccines and the need to speed up the national vaccination program, Presidential Adviser for Entrepreneurship and Go Negosyo founder Joey Concepcion announced that the private sector has unanimously agreed that Zuellig will be their partner in rolling out their procured AstraZeneca vaccines.

“We want to help the government so that we can execute the vaccine rollout in the fastest and most efficient way possible. Extending our help to the government, we will also pay for the logistics and rollout for the government’s frontline workers that will be covered by our donations. Allowing us to execute, we could focus on the vaccination of our employees, the LGUs could focus on its constituents and the national government could focus on the rest that are not covered. We need a fast and almost perfect rollout and the private sector could do this for its employees,” Concepcion pointed out.

He sees it as necessary to partner with the best as this is the only way to ensure an effective and efficient rollout. Through this, Concepcion is hoping for and looking forward to a smooth and faster implementation of the vaccination program, as this is a critical factor for opening the economy further and safer despite the current surge.

“The private sector agreed that it is best to have a logistic partner with a strong market coverage and equipped with the latest technology from a strong blockchain technology, latest cold chain facilities and a strong end-to-end program, among others. To formalize this partnership, a tripartite agreement between the private sector, Zuellig and the government will be finalized,” Concepcion forwarded.

“The private sector is willing to pay for everything. In our town hall meeting last Thursday with the AstraZeneca donors, all companies agreed to fund and pay for the logistics cost of the vaccine roll-out. Our premise here is economic recovery. Economic recovery should start in the last quarter provided that no major lockdowns are set in place and that the rollout of the vaccine will be at lightning speed,” Concepcion added.

This initiative is on top of Concepcion’s “A Dose of Hope” which secured for the country some 17 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine.

“When we decided to buy the vaccines, that’s on the idea of saving both lives and livelihoods. We know that the vaccines are the only solution for this pandemic and when it was made available by AstraZeneca in October and November, the big conglomerates pitched in despite the risk since it was not yet approved by MHRA and our own FDA at that time. Now that the vaccines are starting to arrive, and we are expecting the first batch of the AstraZeneca vaccine to arrive by May to June, we have been proactive, that’s why we decided to partner with Zuellig, one of the best logistic providers and cold chain facilities in the country,” Concepcion said.