Cambodia Appreciates Japan’s Donation of 1 Million Doses of AstraZeneca Vaccine

Samdech Akka Moha Sena Padei Techo Hun Sen, Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Cambodia, has sent a letter to his Japanese counterpart H.E. SUGA Yoshihide, expressing his gratitude to Japan over its continued assistance to Cambodia during this hard time caused by COVID-19 pandemic.

“On behalf of the Royal Government and people of Cambodia, I would like to express my sincere appreciation to the Government and people of Japan for the provision of 1 million doses of Japan’s domestically manufactured AstraZeneca vaccine to the Kingdom of Cambodia. This generous donation deeply reflects the longstanding relations and excellent cooperation between our two countries, and significantly contributes to the implementation of Cambodia’s national vaccination programme,” underlined the Cambodian Premier in his recent message.

On top of the vaccine donation, Japan has also rendered its support for the Royal Government of Cambodia’s response against COVID-19 pandemic through a grant aid of over US$50 million and around US$230 million in loan, recalled Samdech Techo Hun Sen, adding, “I am extremely grateful of Japan’s continued assistance to Cambodia during this difficult time.”

“Although the COVID-19 pandemic has severely affected our socio-economy, daily lives and livelihoods, and has disrupted physical meeting and gathering between our two countries, it cannot prevent us from moving forward, thanks to the digital technology. With the emergence of new variants, our fight against this disease is not going to end soon. Therefore, Cambodia is certainly delighted to continue working closely with the Japanese government during and after the pandemic to promote our economic recovery plan. Taking this opportunity, I would like to highly commend Japan’s effort in hosting the Olympic and Paralympic Games amidst the pandemic, and I wish Japan a fruitful success in organising these games,” he said.

“I look forward to working closely with Your Excellency at both bilateral and multilateral fora, especially at the ASEM Summit to be held virtually in November this year and during Cambodia’s ASEAN chairmanship next year, for the mutual interest of our nations and peoples,” Samdech Techo Prime Minister stressed.

On July 23, some 332,000 of the Japan-donated 1 million doses of AstraZeneca vaccine arrived in Phnom Penh. The handover-receiving ceremony took place at the airport under the presidency of Samdech Techo Hun Sen and Japanese Ambassador to Cambodia H.E. Mikami Masahiro.

Cambodia has now received in total nearly 18 million doses of vaccines through purchase and donations: 6.2 million doses of Sinopharm, 10.5 million doses of Sinovac, and 656,000 doses of AstraZeneca.

As of yesterday, 6,741,782 adult people have got their first jab, or 67.42 percent of the planned 10 million people for the vaccination, among them 4,481,683 have been fully vaccinated.

Cambodia will launch the vaccination campaign of children aged from 12 to 17 years old on Aug. 1 under the presidency of Samdech Techo Prime Minister.

Source: Agency Kampuchea Press