TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — The government said Thursday (July 1) it was setting up the procedures to help the Buddhist Compassion Relief Tzu Chi Foundation import COVID-19 vaccines from overseas.
The application by the prominent Buddhist group followed a similar effort by Foxconn Technology founder Terry Gou (郭台銘) and by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) to fly in a total of 10 million BioNTech shots from Germany.
In all cases, the importers will donate the vaccine doses to the government if their efforts succeed, CNA reported.
Cabinet Spokesman Lo Ping-cheng (羅秉成) said Thursday that there have been close contacts between Tzu Chi and the government over the past few days, with the Buddhist organization submitting documents and plans. As a result, the two sides have reached a consensus to make the application for vaccine imports move forward, Lo said.
He added that officials would consider the experience gained from the Gou and TSMC applications to help steer Tzu Chi’s file in the right direction. President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) spoke to Tzu Chi founder Master Cheng Yen (證嚴法師) by video conference about the issue last week.
