BOAS: As part of a coordinated response to lessen the impact of COVID-19, a passport scheme could be implemented to promote collaboration among countries participating in the Belt and Road Initiative. Valerio De Molli, Managing Partner and CEO of The European House-Ambrosetti, an Italy-based think tank, made the proposal via video link on April 19 while attending a session during the Boao Forum for Asia (BFA) Annual Conference, taking place in Boao, a coastal town in China’s Hainan Province.
However, issuing such a passport, allowing people to prove they have been vaccinated before traveling internationally, is not an easy task and requires the consideration of political and other factors, according to observers. Nevertheless, Jacques Pellet, personal envoy of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) president for China and head of the ICRC Regional Delegation for East Asia, said countries need to work together to deal with COVID-19-related problems and strike a balance between the interests of individual nations and the international community. According to the latest data from Johns Hopkins University, as of April 17, the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases worldwide had surpassed 140 million, with the death toll exceeding 3 million.
The international community is going through a difficult time due to the pandemic and there exist some weaknesses in the global health system that need to be addressed, said Jean-Pierre Raffarin, former Prime Minister of France. In a speech to the session via video link, he called on governments all over the world and international organizations to join hands and promote the sustainable development of global health cooperation.
“Protecting humans is protecting our planet,” Raffarin said. “We need to have a shared vision on world health development… If you have no vision, you have no action.”
The pandemic exposes the fragility of the international system and highlights the importance of international cooperation, said another online participant, Dante Saksono Harbuwono, Vice Minister of Health of Indonesia.
Researchers indicate that healthcare might be a bottleneck that hampers Asia’s sustainable recovery from the pandemic. According to a report released by the BFA on April 18, a shortage of medical resources, including a lack of financial capacity and effective programs, is a huge obstacle for many Asian economies, and it is a daunting task to distribute vaccines with speed across such a populous continent.
– The Daily Mail-Beijing Review News exchange item
