Covid-19: Malaysia welcomes Turkiye’s offer to jointly develop vaccine

Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob. -filepic

ANKARA: Malaysia has welcomed Turkiye’s offer to transfer technology and conduct joint research on development of the Covid-19 vaccine.

"I welcome the offer by President Erdogan to cooperate in the development of the Covid-19 vaccine, Turkovac, which is made by Turkiye,” said Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob.

"I will ask the Health Ministry to study this offer. It is in line with the national roadmap on vaccine development which I launched last year,” he told a press conference for Malaysian journalists at the end of his four-day official visit to the republic on Friday (July 8).

After his meeting with Ismail Sabri here on Thursday (July 7), President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Turkiye hoped the upgrading of its ties with Malaysia to comprehensive strategic partnership would further strengthen economic and commercial cooperation, including on vaccine development.

According to Erdogan, among the immediate plans was for the republic, which became the ninth country in the world that is capable of producing its own Covid-19 vaccine last year, to launch Turkovac in Malaysia.

The Malaysia Healthcare Travel Council (MHTC) meanwhile had signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Aktuel Expo Healthcare International Fair Company to strengthen Malaysia’s position as a world-class health tourism destination, said Ismail Sabri.

He said given Malaysia’s expertise in In Vitro Fertilisation (IVF), cardiology, oncology, dentistry, plastic surgery and several other fields, Turkiye is among the major markets for Malaysia.

Science, Technology and Innovation Minister Datuk Seri Dr Adham Baba, who accompanied Ismail Sabri on the visit, said this effort would help to speed up the development of a Malaysia-made vaccine.

"This is an effort and a collaboration which will enable us to develop vaccine faster, as exchange of technology and sharing of expertise as well as development and research are ongoing,” he said.

According to Dr Adham, Malaysia also has the expertise, capability and capacity to jointly develop this vaccine. - Bernama