MINISTER FOR HEALTH OF THE REPUBLIC OF SINGAPORE, MR ONG YE KUNG'S NATIONAL STATEMENT AT THE HIGH-LEVEL MEETING ON PANDEMIC PREVENTION, PREPAREDNESS AND RESPONSE (PPPR) OF THE 78th UNITED NATIONS GENERAL ASSEMBLY, 20 SEPTEMBER 2023

1 Mr President, Excellencies, Colleagues.

2 Pandemics end, but the threat of pandemics is perennial. Globalisation, urbanisation, and climate change have created ideal conditions for such pandemic “perfect storms". We are now in the age of pandemics.

3 To develop contingency plans and capabilities to protects its people in the initial phase of the pandemic, is the role of each nation. To emerge from the pandemic, we need to ensure vaccines and therapeutics are accessible to everyone on this planet, and that is the responsibility of the international community.

4 How have the global community done during COVID-19?I believe the jury is divided.

5 We witnessed export controls and nationalistic policies, which constrain vaccine production capacity, access and availability. Developing countries suffered the most due to inequitable access to vaccines.

6 There are many positive aspects too. Genome sequencing data of various virus strains were widely shared globally. Scientists and clinicians collaborated to develop vaccines in record time. Multilateralism did not entirely fail us.

7 In this vein, we must strengthen our multilateral pandemic preparedness efforts in three key areas.

8 First, a global surveillance system to detect emerging infectious diseases is a key foundation of pandemic response. Coming out from the pandemic, there are strong views about the need for regional self-sufficiency, or even national self-sufficiency. We now have efforts like the mRNA vaccine technology transfer hub which we applaud. I hope they succeed to build up the resilience.

9 However, without a strong global surveillance system, new and more transmissible variants would not have been as quickly identified and vaccines would not have been as effective or made available so quickly.

10 It is therefore imperative that all countries contribute surveillance data. According to WHO, number of SARS-COV-2 sequences submitted to GISAID has declined by 90 percent worldwide from the peak, and the number of countries submitting data has also fallen. More can be done to strengthen and improve the existing platform in GISAID.

11 Second, scientists and clinicians around the world need to collaborate closely to develop vaccines. Indeed, the success of the 100-Day Mission is contingent on a strong global network of research institutions, vaccine manufacturers and regulators.

12 Third, we need to uphold free and open trade when it comes to vaccine production and distribution. Today, any sophisticated product, from cars to smart phones and pharmaceuticals, is possible because of an interdependent global production system.

13 In designing our global approach, we need a strong international free trade agreement to ensure free and open export of raw supplies and medical countermeasures. Small countries like Singapore with a population of 5.8 million, would also have correspondingly small demand for vaccines, and we would be committed to exporting our vaccines from Day One. We are also supportive of discussions at the Intergovernmental Negotiating Body, or INB, that seek to promote this free flow of critical supplies across borders during a pandemic, allowing our global public health emergency response to be activated, scaled up and delivered as rapidly as possible, and ensure that countries and populations can receive timely access to lifesaving medical countermeasures.

14 COVID-19 has illustrated the importance of multilateralism. The shortcomings of our response, such as vaccine inequity, is no fault of multilateralism, but because multilateralism did not work as well as it should. We should draw the right lessons. To be victorious over an enemy that does not respect borders, we need stronger international co-operation and multilateralism.

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