KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia has signed an agreement with China to be given priority access to Covid-19 vaccines developed in the people's republic.
The agreement was signed by Science, Technology and Innovation Minister Khairy Jamaluddin and his Chinese counterpart Wang Zhigang, in a virtual ceremony.
This follows Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi's declaration that Malaysia would be one of the priority recipients of China-made Covid-19 vaccines currently under development, when he visited Kuala Lumpur in October.
Besides priority access to the vaccines, the agreement also paves the way for knowledge-and expertise-sharing while facilitating the upgrade of scientific and technological capabilities related to the advancement in the development of the vaccine in both countries.
The matter was announced by the ministry in a joint statement with the Foreign Ministry, today.
The agreement will be operationalised under the supervision of a High Level Committee, chaired by the two Foreign Ministers, as agreed on Oct 13, to promote pragmatic cooperation and a more coherent approach in addressing post pandemic challenges.
In earlier bilateral virtual meetings, both Khairy and Zhigang had agreed to increase collaboration in addressing the Covid-19 pandemic through science diplomacy.
Both countries would also support in the participation of public and private sectors including universities, institutions, societies and organisations in joint collaborative projects.
The governments have further agreed that they would also support and encourage their enterprises to establish all-round cooperation in vaccine research and development (R&D) and supply.
"This ggreement shall remain in force for an initial period of five years and shall be automatically extended for a further period of one year at a time, upon mutual agreement by both parties," the statement read.
Malaysia is slated to set aside RM3 billion in vaccine spending from its special Covid-19 fund.
It is currently in talks with eight vaccine developers that are in their third stage of clinical trials, including Pfizer which boasts that their vaccines have 90 per cent efficacy rates based on early findings.