PM Trudeau pledges upwards of $800 million for covid vaccines and infrastructure in Asia

One of the Canadian leaders’ key agendas while on the ongoing Southeast Asia trip has been strengthening Indo-Pacific relations amid growing tensions with China. In lieu of the key motive Canadian PM Justin Trudeau, while at the G20 summit in Indonesia on Tuesday, announced that Canada would be pledging about $750 Million for infrastructure development in developing and underdeveloped countries in Asia.

The project, which is intended to begin next March, aims at helping low and middle-income countries have safer and more sustainable cities as well as bridging the gap of infrastructure inequality by building schools and hospitals.

FinDev Canada, a Canadian institute that is currently managing funding in Sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America as well as the Caribbean, will oversee the allocation of funds in Asia as well.

While at the address, the Canadian PM iterated, “If we want to close the infrastructure gap, we need to continue finding ways to incentivize greater private sector investment. No amount of public money can single-handedly fix this issue.”

Alongside the infrastructure fund by the Liberal party, Trudeau also announced $80 million to be allocated to a World Bank project aimed at pandemic management and prevention, which will aid in the production of COVID-19 mRNA vaccines in developing countries.