President Yoon Meets Bill Gates, Hopes for Substantive Cooperation

President Yoon Suk-yeol is taking a commemorative photo with Bill Gates, co-chairman of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and founder of Microsoft, at the Presidential Office building in Yongsan, Seoul, on the afternoon of the 16th. (Photo by Yonhap News)

[Asia Economy Reporter Ryu Tae-min] President Yoon Suk-yeol proposed "substantive cooperation" to Bill Gates, co-chairman of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (hereinafter the Gates Foundation), who visited Korea on the 16th.

On the afternoon of the same day, President Yoon met with Chairman Gates at the Yongsan Presidential Office building and stated, "On behalf of the Korean government, I would like to establish a substantive cooperative relationship with the Gates Foundation so that our country can continue to build advanced bio-health technologies and contribute to the improvement of global citizens' health."

The Gates Foundation is a nonprofit organization established in 2000 by Bill Gates and his then-wife Melinda Gates to eradicate global poverty and prevent diseases. It is supporting SK Bioscience's development of a COVID-19 vaccine.

President Yoon mentioned Chairman Gates' efforts in vaccine and treatment development and supply, emphasizing, "In the COVID-19 pandemic situation, Chairman Gates' efforts have greatly contributed to securing freedom from disease and health justice for global citizens." He also expressed gratitude for the support in vaccine development, saying, "I hope SK Bioscience's COVID vaccine will be widely used to prevent infectious diseases in developing countries."

President Yoon met Chairman Gates face-to-face for the first time on this day after a phone call on June 24. He also said to Chairman Gates, the founder of Microsoft, "It is a personal great honor to meet our Bill Gates, who revolutionized our modern industrial technology infrastructure."

Chairman Gates introduced, "I have had the opportunity to work with many advanced countries to promote global health, and Korea has become an excellent partner in this process. Amid the pandemic, I led the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) to manage risks, and Korea also provided generous support."