Seoul 17 Aug : American billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates said on Wednesday he would like to witness “a more generous” South Korea in its global aid contribution in order to solve global health issues and provide the appropriate assistance to people in need in the developing world.Gates, who is a co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation said that raising the budget for aid is an crucial function South Korea can play as a country with a lot of resources, not to mention its rapid technological advancements in the development of vaccines.
“I’m extremely involved in encouraging wealthy nations to give more and to increase their aid budgets” Gates said in an interview with Yonhap News Agency on the final day of his trip of three days to Seoul.
“You cannot do everything.
Even in wealthy countries there are trade-offs you must make that you don’t have to spend endless amounts of money to fix however in less developed countries, these trade-offs can be extremely severe .therefore, we must ensure that all resources are directed to intervention strategies that have a high impact,” he said.
Gates made note of Seoul’s commitment to increase the budget for aid as per percentage of the economy up to 0.3 percent from 0.16 percent, saying it was an “fantastic” step that will create South Korea “the 10th biggest donor” in the world.
In June, South Korea set the budget for aid in 2023 as 4.5 trillion won ($3.43 billion) an increase of 502 billion won over this year.
Gates suggested that South Korea could do its part by taking part in the coming replenishment of the Global Fund, an international finance agency that funds anti-epidemic efforts.
“If Korea could come in with over the three-year period of $100 to $150 million, that’s an incredible contribution and a major increase” he said.
The Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Initiative (CEPI) is an international alliance to develop and research vaccines against infectious diseases such as COVID-19 is a second option South Korean can consider for the additional donation, Gates said.
When asked whether he presented such ideas to the South Korean government during his earlier meetings with President Yoon Suk-yeol as well as National Assembly Speaker Kim Jin-pyo, Gates said the “conversation continues.”
“We are able to highlight that these two groups have actually contributed more money to South Korea than the contribution to the country, so South Korea is actually winning the funding based on merits,” Gates said.
“If they decide to give the amount they have set I’ll be the first to express my gratitude to them for their incredible generosity,” he said.
Regarding the COVID-19 prediction, Gates, who authored the most recent book “How to Avoid the Next Pandemic” said that the number of infections are higher than anticipated and demanded that the international community in budget increases for organizations such as the World Health Organization to enable them to “fly into situations of crisis” with top-notch teams and tools.
“I’m optimistic that over the next few years, people will decide that this is an investment worth making,” Gates said.
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