Prime Minister Ana Brnabic signed today, on behalf of our country, a Memorandum of Understanding and Cooperation for the production of the vaccine of the company Sinopharm in Serbia with a Chinese manufacturer and partner from the United Arab Emirates.

 

Brnabic pointed out that the signing of the Memorandum is the first concrete step towards the construction of a vaccine factory, which should be ready by the end of the year.

 

We have ambitious goals to build a factory for the production of vaccines by the end of the year, to work on filling in parallel and to have 10 million doses in Serbia by the end of the year, and to start a comprehensive production process soon after, she said.

 

According to her, today is an important day for Serbia, but also for the region, because we will have the vaccine closer, it will be more accessible and we will be able to continue to fight against the coronavirus pandemic.

 

As she emphasised, this is the beginning of a wider cooperation between Serbia, China and the UAE in the field of biomedicine, bioinformatics and the use of artificial intelligence in pharmacy.

 

This is a continuation of the cooperation that we started during the difficult period of the COVID crisis, when we created two laboratories for PCR testing together, stated Brnabic.

 

She pointed out that the signing of the Memorandum was also the result of the visit of President of Serbia Aleksandar Vucic to the UAE in March this year, when an agreement was reached on cooperation in the construction of the factory.

 

The Prime Minister expressed gratitude to Sinopharm for the cooperation during the COVID crisis, stating that Serbia bought four million vaccines from that company, and that 4.2 million were delivered to us, because 200,000 doses were donated, and some quantities were delivered earlier.

 

Brnabic once again appealed to the citizens to get vaccinated, emphasizing that Chinese vaccines are excellent, safe and traditional.

 

Chinese Ambassador to Serbia Chen Bo assessed that the signing of the Memorandum is an important step forward in cooperation on joint production of Chinese vaccine against COVID-19 and a new beginning of cooperation between Serbia and China in the field of pharmaceutical industry.

 

She also stated that China is trying to fulfil President Xi Jinping's promise that the Chinese vaccine against coronavirus will be a global public product.

 

As she stated, the Chinese side provided and delivered more than 500 million doses and substances of the vaccine to more than 100 countries and international organizations.

 

We very much appreciate the fact that the government of Serbia provides assistance to other countries in the region in vaccination, and the Chinese side is ready to make joint efforts with Serbian partners and the UAE in order to build a factory as soon as possible, she said.

 

According to her, Serbia will not only have enough vaccines for its internal use, but will also be able to provide greater assistance to other countries in the fight against the pandemic.