Jeong Byeong-seon, Vice Minister of Science and ICT, Discusses 'COVID-19 Cooperation Plan' with 18 Countries

[Asia Economy Reporter Junho Hwang] Jeong Byeong-seon, the 1st Vice Minister of the Ministry of Science and ICT, will attend a virtual multilateral meeting on COVID-19 response hosted by the U.S. White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) at Myeongdong Post Office on the 17th to discuss international cooperation plans.

This meeting has been held every other Wednesday at 7 p.m. (Korean time) since March under the shared recognition among participating countries that it is important to implement COVID-19 response policies based on accurate information and data grounded in science and technology. In addition to the U.S. and South Korea, science and technology ministers from 18 other countries are attending this meeting.

The COVID-19 ministers from each country share major research results and policy cases such as treatment and vaccine development, clinical trials, and serological testing. Recently, they jointly issued a statement targeting major academic journals such as Cell, Nature, and Science to make COVID-19 related papers and research results freely accessible.

The Ministry of Science and ICT has presented key cases that overseas countries can benchmark, including Korea’s self-diagnosis app, COVID-19 response R&D guidelines, drive-through testing system, mask distribution, and recommendations for mask-wearing. It also shared major domestic R&D information such as diagnostic kit development, plasma treatment results, drug repurposing achievements, animal model development, and COVID-19 big data to assist participating countries in their COVID-19 response.

Vice Minister Jeong stated, "We will continue to actively strive to resolve global common issues such as COVID-19 based on the high-level international cooperation network in the field of science and technology."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.