Trust is key to realising vaccine multilateralism, says EDB chairman

TRUST and partnerships between countries to tackle the Covid-19 crisis are needed more than ever to realise vaccine multilateralism, the chairman of the Economic Development Board of Singapore said on Wednesday.

Speaking to about 2,000 participants from across the world at the opening ceremony of the 50th St Gallen Symposium, Dr Beh Swan Gin said he is particularly proud that Singapore and Switzerland came together to co-chair the Friends of the Covax Facility "despite the glaring lack of international cooperation in the past year".

He noted that the Covax facility is an important initiative put together by Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance and the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) and the World Health Organization to organise the collective procurement of vaccines on behalf of more than 100 countries.

Dr Beh said: "It is not the perfect solution, but it has definitely enabled low-income economies to secure access to Covid-19 vaccines earlier than what could have happened if we had left it to market forces." He described it as a demonstration of both Singapore's and Switzerland's commitment to multilateralism.

Addressing the symposium's theme "Trust Matters", he said: "The topic of trust is very timely. Partnerships between countries to tackle the Covid-19 crisis are needed more than ever. No one is safe until everyone is safe."

However, he noted that multilateral institutions that have enabled countries to work together for the common good have been weakened in recent years and undermined by populist politics in some countries. This has not only undermined trust in multilateral institutions, but also cooperation across countries.

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Lord Brian Griffiths of Fforestfach, vice-chairman of Goldman Sachs and a fellow speaker at the opening ceremony, said trust relates to being trustworthy and to facing up to the truth - something that is not easy to do.

"In order to have trust, you yourself and the institutions of which you're a part, must be trustworthy. And to be trustworthy, you must, in the end, talk the truth," he said.

He said the reason certain countries are not well-liked is that they are not deemed to be trustworthy based on the way they treat dissidents, much like how environmentalists believe businesses and capitalism are not telling the truth about the environment.

This year's St Gallen Symposium takes on a hybrid format, with live panels and discussions streamed from four global hubs for this event - St Gallen in Switzerland, Singapore, New York and London.   

Hosted by UBS at its brand-new UBS University in Singapore, this is the first time Singapore is holding an event concurrently with the actual symposium in Switzerland.

August Hatecke, country head of UBS Singapore, said: "This year's topic that trust matters is integral to us at UBS ... Indeed, trust is the new currency in the digital age, and it is so powerful because it has the capacity to drive change and innovation."