The United States is evaluating helping to create a vaccine manufacturing center for Latin America that allows more doses to be manufactured on the continent, and wants to support a project that seeks to do the same in West Africa, an official source said Monday.
Those projects could be part of the infrastructure plan with which the United States wants to counter China’s advance, which Washington plans to present probably next January and which will be called “Build back better for the world”.
In a telephone press conference with a small group of media, a senior US official gave clues about the projects that the White House is considering financing in Latin America, the Caribbean, Africa, and the Indo-Pacific within the framework of the initiative, which has the support of the G7.
“There are a series of projects in the field of solar, hydraulic, and geothermal energy (that we could develop), and we have had many conversations both in Ecuador and in Colombia about the possibility of creating a vaccine manufacturing center for Latin America,” explained the official.
The source, who requested anonymity, did not give details about how this possible manufacturing center would work but explained that it was discussed during a Latin American tour that Daleep Singh, President Joe’s deputy national security adviser, did in late September. Biden.
Singh visited Colombia, Ecuador, and Panama to hear the ideas of the leaders of those countries and begin to shape the White House plan; And last week, he also traveled to Senegal and Ghana to do the same in that African region.
“In each of the five countries that we have visited so far, we have come up with at least ten projects” that can be developed within the framework of the new initiative, said the aforementioned official.
That “does not mean that 50 projects will be launched in those five countries in January” , but the list will probably be shortened and the United States will launch its new initiative with “between five and ten projects that will serve as proof” of what it may mean. the initiative added the source.
The Biden government has another tour related to the initially planned for the end of the year in Asia, and also wants to schedule a trip to Central America, although there is no date for that yet, the official said.
The initiative’s initial projects will be formally decided during a G7 meeting in December, in which the UK will hand over the group’s presidency to Germany, the source added.
The future US plan is expected to mobilize capital from the private sector to drive projects in four areas: climate, health security, digital technology, and gender equality.