PHNOM PENH, July 10 (Xinhua) -- Medical supplies produced in Cambodia have been helping other developing countries to fight the COVID-19 pandemic, said an Asian Development Bank (ADB)'s press statement on Friday.
ADB, through its Procurement, Portfolio and Financial Management Department (PPFD), has awarded a 5-million-U.S. dollar contract to Medtecs Group to produce protective gowns, coveralls and shoe covers to be distributed to frontline health workers in 11 developing countries, the statement said.
Medtecs Group has been operating in Cambodia since 1999 and employs 5,500 people at its factory in southeastern Kampong Cham province, it said, adding that the factory currently has a monthly production capacity of up to 8 million gowns, 2.5 million coveralls and 4 million shoe covers.
The finished goods passed independent third party inspection, and began dispatching from Cambodia in late June for transportation to the various destination countries, the statement said.
"This first batch of goods purchased under ADB emergency procurement guidelines for COVID-19 was manufactured in a developing member country, which is also one of the recipients of the finished products," said Jesper Pedersen, ADB's PPFD principal procurement specialist.
He added that ADB was pleased to play its part in directly procuring and facilitating the mobilization of the urgently needed supplies from global sources, and to different developing countries.
According to the statement, in immediate response to global efforts to combat the pandemic, ADB mobilized funding for Technical Assistance (TA) on Regional Support to Address the Outbreak of the COVID-19 with the amount of 48.3 million U.S. dollars in early 2020.
As of June's end, ADB has procured and awarded 15 million dollars of contracts under the TA with various suppliers of personal protective equipment, testing kits, diagnostics equipment, lab reagents, and other critical items to fight the disease, it said. Enditem
