Dubai logistics giant DP World will deploy ‘all facilities’ to ensure global vaccine distribution, CEO says

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Dubai logistics giant DP World will deploy ‘all facilities’ to ensure global vaccine distribution, CEO says

11:29 CAT | 16 Feb 2021

Dubai-based logistics firm DP World has helped launch a vaccine logistics alliance to pace up the distribution of Covid-19 vaccines all over the world.

More than a yr after Covid-19 started to unfold globally, the race to vaccinate is on. Over 170 million photographs have been given throughout 77 nations, with Israel and the UAE main the best way on vaccination charges. Jabs have been snapped up by rich nations, leaving continents like Africa and South America at nighttime on the highway to a global restoration.

“We will deploy all the facilities we have, and our geographical spread,” DP World Chairman and CEO Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem informed CNBC’s Hadley Gamble in an unique interview Monday. “Whatever we have, we’re going to deploy it because this pandemic will not go away unless everyone gets vaccinated,” Sulayem stated.

DP World’s ports, terminals, and logistics operations encompassing six continents deal with 10% of global commerce, primarily based on annual volumes of containers moved all over the world. Initially based as a neighborhood port operator, the corporate now boasts 90 places throughout 60 nations.

DP World’s benefit, its chairman says, is the corporate’s entry to distant areas and its potential to transport the vaccines to locations it says many others can’t. The alliance will deploy the scope of Dubai Airports, Emirates Group and Dubai Humanitarian City, all working to transport, retailer and distribute vaccines to extra distant corners of the globe.

Those spots embrace DP World’s logistics heart in Kigali, Rwanda and a multi-purpose port in Paramaribo, Suriname — to title two of a number of on the continents of Africa and South America, respectively.

And the corporate’s house of Dubai, broadly considered the area’s journey and enterprise hub, prides itself on a proximity to two thirds of the world’s inhabitants in simply eight hours. “Dubai is one of the busiest airports with amazing connectivity through all the airlines,” Sulayem stated.

Equitable distribution

In addition to the Dubai logistics alliance, DP World will also lend their expertise to UNICEF to help distribute vaccines to low and middle-income countries.

More than two thirds of the world’s available vaccine doses have been scooped up by governments representing just one sixth of the world’s population, leaving much of the developing world facing an indefinite period without hope of Covid-19 shots for its populations.

“Africa has been totally left behind,” African billionaire and philanthropist Mo Ibrahim told CNBC last week. There is a “rising tide of what is called vaccine nationalism. All the rich countries are fighting among themselves about who can have more vaccines,” Ibrahim said.

DP World’s Sulayem also pointed out that vaccine nationalism could prolong the pandemic. “There are over 12 billion vaccines produced, but 9 billion [are] already reserved by the Western countries, which really constitutes about 14% of the population,” he said.

The pandemic has claimed nearly 2.4 million lives and infected more than 108 million people, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University and the World Health Organization. The Dubai alliance will support the WHO’s COVAX initiative — a separate alliance aiming to deliver vaccines to the world’s poorest countries — and its efforts to equitably distribute 2 billion doses of Covid-19 vaccines in 2021.

DP World is ‘working with Moderna’

Dubai residents can currently sign up to take the Pfizer, AstraZeneca or Sinopharm vaccine. Bringing new jabs to the market requires approval by country, including the implementation of clinical trials, something that DP World has told CNBC could be in the pipeline.

“We’re talking with Moderna. Moderna is a newcomer to this and their vaccine is good,” Sulayem said of the American pharmaceutical giant, whose shot was approved for use in the U.S. in December. He added that DP World is currently speaking to Moderna about how and where the logistics company can help distribute its vaccine.

Moderna did not reply to a CNBC request for comment.

Source: CNBC