ASEAN, Japan join hands in combating bird flu

Japan conveyed tamiflu tablets for 500,000 bird flu patients and 700,000 personal protection equipment (PPE) to Secretary General of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Ong Keng Yong in Jakarta on Tuesday.

The delivery also unveiled the plan of the ASEAN-Japan Integration Fund to provide tamiflu tablets and PPE to help fight avian influenza or bird flu disease in the region.

The first batch of tamiflu tablets and PPE has already been sent to ASEAN region and now in Singapore.

At a ceremony, Japanese Deputy Foreign Minister Mitoji Yabunaka said the process to provide all tamiflu tablets and PPE would be finished in the next few months.

Through the ASEAN-Japan Integration Fund, he said, the Japanese government had also provided technical assistance to concerned agencies tasked to combat bird flu virus.

The Japanese government's assistance to fight bird flu infection in Southeast Asian constituted a follow-up to Japanese Prime Minster Junichiro Koizumi's initiative conveyed at the ASEAN- Japan summit held last December.

Koizumi has pledged that Japan would make a contribution of 70. 1 million U.S. dollars to help fight avian influenza virus through the ASEAN-Japan Integration Fund which was founded on March 27, 2005.

Source: Xinhua