The Korean government presented the International Vaccine Institute (IVI) with a new headquarters building and experiment facilities in Seoul. The IVI is based in Korea. The new six-story building is located in the research park of Seoul National University (SNU) and equipped with cutting-edge experiment facilities, conference rooms and a vaccine pilot plant. About 200 guests attended the presentation ceremony held Thursday morning. Attendants included President Roh Moo-hyun, First lady Kwon Yang-suk, the honorary chairwoman of the Korean supporting group for the IVI, Education Minister Ahn Byung-young, Health and Welfare Minister Kim Geun-tae, chairman of the IVI's board of trustees Samuel Katz and SNU president Chung Un-chan.
Dr. John Clemens, chief of the IVI, expressed his appreciation by saying that the new headquarters was a valuable gift to the world’s poor children, when dysentery and cholera annually claim the lives of more than one million children around the world, and that research to develop vaccines against those disease has made considerable progress in less than one year after the research program began.
President Roh Moo-hyun said that Korea had been a victim of cholera and typhoid in the 1960s and 1970s and had received enormous help from the international community. Korea would return the debt and contribute to the health and happiness of humankind, said the president.
The IVI is the first international organization based in Korea. With the leadership of the United Nations Development Program, the institute was established in 1994. Thirty five countries and the WHO are members of the institute, with 96 employees from 17 countries working there.
(Chae Seong-jin, dudmie@chosun.com)
