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Ukraine suffers major setback after the fall of Sievierodonetsk

Army soldier figurines are displayed in front of the Ukrainian and Russian flag colors background in this illustration taken, Feb. 13, 2022. — REUTERS/DADO RUVIC/ILLUSTRATION

KYIV/POKROVSK — Ukraine special forces remained in Sievierodonetsk directing artillery fire against Russian-backed troops, said an adviser to Ukraine’s president, after the city fell in a major setback for Kyiv as it struggles to keep control of the country’s east.

Ukrainian shelling on Saturday forced Russian troops to suspend the evacuation of people from a chemical plant in Sievierodonetsk, just hours after Moscow’s forces took the city, Tass news agency quoted local police as saying.

The fall of Sievierodonetsk, following weeks of some of the war’s bloodiest fighting, is the biggest defeat for Ukraine since it lost control of the southern port of Mariupol in May.

Ukraine called its retreat from the city a “tactical withdrawal” to fight from higher ground in Lysychansk on the opposite bank of the Siverskyi Donets river. Pro-Russian separatists said Moscow’s forces were now attacking Lysychansk.

The fall of Sievierodonetsk — once home to more than 100,000 people but now a wasteland — transforms the battlefield in the east after weeks in which Moscow’s huge advantage in firepower had yielded only slow gains.

Russia will now seek to press on and seize more ground on the opposite bank, while Ukraine will hope that the price Moscow paid to capture the ruins of the small city will leave Russia’s forces vulnerable to counterattack.

President Volodymyr Zelensky vowed in a video address that Ukraine would win back the cities it lost, including Sievierodonetsk. But acknowledging the war’s emotional toll, he said: “We don’t have a sense of how long it will last, how many more blows, losses and efforts will be needed before we see victory is on the horizon.”

Kyrylo Budanov, Ukraine’s military intelligence chief, told Reuters that Ukraine was carrying out “a tactical regrouping” by pulling its forces out of Sievierodonetsk.

“Russia is using the tactic … it used in Mariupol: wiping the city from the face of the earth,” he said. “Given the conditions, holding the defense in the ruins and open fields is no longer possible. So the Ukrainian forces are leaving for higher ground to continue the defense operations.”

Russia’s defense ministry said “as a result of successful offensive operations” Russian forces had established full control over Sievierodonetsk and the nearby town of Borivske.

Oleksiy Arestovych, senior adviser to Mr. Zelensky, said some Ukrainian special forces were still in Sievierodonetsk directing artillery fire against the Russians. But he made no mention of those forces putting up any direct resistance.

Russia’s Interfax news agency cited a representative of pro-Russian separatist fighters saying Russian and pro-Russian forces had entered Lysychansk across the river and were fighting in urban areas there.

MISSILES RAIN DOWN
Russia also launched missile strikes across Ukraine on Saturday. At least three people were killed and others may have been buried in rubble in the town of Sarny, some 185 miles (300 km) west of Kyiv, after rockets hit a carwash and a car repair facility, said the head of the local regional military administration.

Russia denies targeting civilians. Kyiv and the West say Russian forces have committed war crimes against civilians.

Russian missiles also struck elsewhere overnight. “48 cruise missiles. At night. Throughout whole Ukraine,” Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak said on Twitter. “Russia is still trying to intimidate Ukraine, cause panic.”

Ukraine’s top general Valeriy Zaluzhnyi wrote on the Telegram app that newly arrived, US-supplied advanced HIMARS rocket systems were now deployed and hitting targets in Russian-occupied parts of Ukraine.

Seeking to further tighten the screws on Russia, US President Joseph R. Biden and other Group of Seven (G7) leaders attending a summit in Germany starting on Sunday will agree on an import ban on new gold from Russia, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters.

Britain is ready to guarantee a further $525 million of World Bank loans to Ukraine later this year, taking total fiscal support this year to $1.5 billion, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said ahead of the G7 meeting.

“Ukraine can win and it will win. But they need our backing to do so. Now is not the time to give up on Ukraine,” Mr. Johnson said in a statement on Saturday.

‘IT WAS HORROR’
In the Ukrainian-held Donbas town of Pokrovsk, Elena, an elderly woman in a wheelchair from Lysychansk, was among dozens of evacuees who arrived by bus from frontline areas.

“Lysychansk, it was a horror, the last week. Yesterday we could not take it any more,” she said. “I already told my husband if I die, please bury me behind the house.”

Europe’s biggest land conflict since World War II has entered its fifth month, after Russian President Vladimir Putin sent tens of thousands of troops over the border on Feb. 24 and unleashed a conflict that has killed thousands and uprooted millions. It has also stoked an energy and food crisis that is shaking the global economy.

Since Russia’s forces were defeated in an assault on the capital Kyiv in March, it has shifted focus to the Donbas, an eastern territory made up of Luhansk and Donetsk provinces. Sievierodonetsk and Lysychansk were the last major Ukrainian bastions in Luhansk.

Moscow says Luhansk and Donetsk, where it has backed uprisings since 2014, are independent countries. It demands Ukraine cede the entire territory of the two provinces to separatist administrations. — Reuters

Pro-life is not just opposing abortion, Vatican says after US ruling

AERIAL VIEW of St. Peter’s Basilica, Vatican City — ALAN LIU-UNSPLASH

ANTI-ABORTION ACTIVISTS should be concerned with other issues that can threaten life, such as easy access to guns, poverty and rising maternity mortality rates, the Vatican’s editorial director said on Saturday.

In a media editorial on the United States Supreme Court’s ruling to end the constitutional right to abortion, Andrea Tornielli said those who oppose abortion could not pick and choose pro-life issues.

“Being for life, always, for example, means being concerned if the mortality rates of women due to motherhood increase,” he wrote.

He cited statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention showing a rise in maternity mortality rates overall and that the rate was nearly three times higher for black women.

“Being for life, always, means asking how to help women welcome new life,” he wrote, citing an unsourced statistic that 75% of women who have abortions live in poverty or are low-wage earners.

He also cited statistics from the Harvard Review of Psychiatry showing that the United States has much lower rates of paid parental leave compared with other rich nations.

“Being for life, always, also means defending it against the threat of firearms, which unfortunately have become a leading cause of death of children and adolescents in the US” he wrote.

The Roman Catholic church teaches that abortion is murder because life begins at the moment of conception and ends with natural death.

Pope Francis has compared having an abortion to “hiring a hit man” to eliminate a problematic person.

But he has tried to steer the US Catholic Church away from seeing abortion as the single, overarching life issue in the country’s so-called culture wars.

The death penalty, gun control, support for families, and immigration are also life issues, he has said.

The Vatican’s Academy for Life praised Friday’s US Supreme Court ruling, saying it challenged the world to reflect on life issues, but also called for social changes to help women keep their children.

US President Joseph R. Biden, a lifelong Catholic, condemned the ruling, calling it a “sad day” for America and labeling the court’s conservatives as “extreme”. — Reuters

PHINMA Corp. to conduct annual stockholders’ meeting through remote communication on July 14

 


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ING to exit PHL retail banking business by this year

source: https://bit.ly/2GswBI6

ING BANK N.V.-Manila will leave the Philippine retail banking market before 2022 ends, just about three years after its foray into the space, due to uncertain global conditions that affected its operations in the country.

“ING’s retail business in the Philippines was intended as the first step and foundation for a broader Asia retail banking plan. Since its launch in 2018, the business has demonstrated good progress, commercial momentum and growth potential,” the lender said in a statement on Friday.

“However, the uncertain global macro situation in the last few years led to ING deciding not to expand the activities to other countries, which meant that the retail operations in the Philippines had to be re-assessed for its scalability as a standalone business,” ING Bank added.

The bank assured its retail clients that their funds are safe and will remain accessible as it will continue to operate as usual until its exit from the business.

It said their customers can visit its website for information and updates on the impending shutdown of its retail business, including on how to close their accounts. It will no longer accept account opening requests.

Still, ING Bank said it will retain its wholesale banking business and global shared services operations in the Philippines.

“ING has a history in the Philippines that goes back more than 30 years. In that time, we’ve developed strong and steady partnerships with a number of the country’s largest corporations and financial institutions,” ING Philippines Country Manager Hans B. Sicat was quoted as saying in the statement.

“ING will continue to invest in growing our wholesale banking business to strengthen our position in the country, and we have plans to increase our focus on sustainable finance… We hope to take advantage of the growth prospects in various sectors like renewable energy, technology, media & telecommunications, infrastructure, financial institutions, among others,” Mr. Sicat added.

ING Bank has been operating in the Philippines as a wholesale lender since 1990 and entered the retail banking business in late 2018. It launched an all-digital savings bank platform in early 2019.

In 2013, the lender established ING Business Shared Services B.V. Branch Office or IBSS Manila to provide 24/7 global support for ING in areas including retail operations, financial markets, trade finance, lending services, due diligence, audit, legal, risk management and compliance, and IT and software development, among others.

“Extended capabilities and services have driven our growth and development in recent years. We have had to move to bigger premises several times since 2013; and have plans to take up an additional 12 floors in One Ayala Tower 2 in the next few months to accommodate our growing diverse teams as we take on additional projects and services this year and beyond,” IBSS Manila Chief Executive Officer Cees Ovelgonne said.

ING Bank was the 32nd biggest commercial lender in the country in asset terms with P31.46 billion at end-2021.

The lender’s move comes after Citigroup in 2021 likewise announced its exit from its consumer banking business in the country, along with other Asia-Pacific markets.

Citigroup has sold its Philippine consumer portfolio, including its credit card, personal loans, wealth management and retail deposit businesses, to UnionBank of the Philippines, Inc. for P55 billion.

The acquisition also includes Citi’s real estate interests in relation to Citibank Square in Eastwood, three full-service bank branches, five wealth centers and two bank branch lites. — Keisha B. Ta-asan

Job turnover in NCR improves in second half of 2021

Metro Manila’s job turnover improved in the latter half of 2021, data from the Philippine Statistics Authority showed.

The agency’s Labor Turnover Survey said the National Capital Region (NCR) reported turnover rates — the difference between the rate of hiring and the rate of job termination or resignation — of 0.7% and 0.6% in the third and fourth quarters of 2021, respectively.

This ended the two consecutive quarters of negative turnover rates in the first and second quarter of 2021 at -3.1% and -1.2%, respectively.

The turnover rate in the last two quarters of 2021 showed that for every 1,000 employed by establishments in Metro Manila, seven workers were added in the workforce in the third quarter while six workers were added in the workforce in the fourth quarter.

The accession rate, which represents hiring to either replace former employees or expand the workforce, was 9.6% and 9.7% in the third and fourth quarter last year, up from 7.3% and 7% in the first two quarters of 2021.

The separation rate, which covers termination and resignation, stood at 8.9% and 9.1% in the last two quarters of 2021.

Separation rate for the first quarter last year was at 10.4% and 8.1% for the second quarter.

Only the service sector posted a positive labor turnover rate with 0.7% and 1.1% in the third and fourth quarter last year, respectively.

In the third quarter, only the agriculture sector posted a contraction of 1.2%. Turnover rates for the industry sector logged net employment gains of 0.6%.

On the other hand, the industry sector declined by 1.8% while turnover rates for the agriculture sector increased by 0.4% in the fourth quarter of 2021. — Abigail Marie P. Yraola 

 

NCR building materials price growth in March fastest in over 10 years

RETAIL price growth of construction materials in Metro Manila accelerated to its fastest pace in more than a decade, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) reported on Friday.

Preliminary data from the PSA showed that retail price growth of building materials in the National Capital Region (NCR) rose by 4.8% year on year in March, higher than the 3.3% seen in February and 1.2% in March last year.

This was the quickest pace in more than 10 years, since the 5.4% in January 2012.

Metro Manila's construction materials retail price index

This brought the NCR’s construction materials retail price index (CMRPI) average in the first quarter to 3.7%, higher than the 1.2% in January–March last year.

Prices for all commodity groups recorded increases that month, led by tinsmithry materials (7.3% in March from 5.2% in February).

Plumbing materials likewise grew by 6.9% year on year in March from 4.5% in February; miscellaneous construction materials (6.7% from 3.4%); electrical materials (3.6% from 2.8%); painting materials and related compounds (2.5% from 2.3%); masonry materials (2.1% from 1.9%); and carpentry materials (1.3% from 1.1%).

The retail construction prices reflect demand from small-scale building projects, such as small contractors. — Abigail Marie P. Yraola

 

Tax agencies should keep up with global trend toward flexible work — ADB

Cognitive jobs that require data interpretation, analysis, and creative thinking — characteristics that are prevalent among higher educated and more skilled workers — can be done from home, said an Asian Development Bank economist. 

“What we see globally is that enterprises and workers in information-related occupations are shifting towards hybrid and even remote work arrangements,” Sameer Khatiwada, ADB Southeast Asia’s social sector specialist, told BusinessWorld in an e-mail. 

Despite the global trend of hybrid or remote work, business process outsourcing companies (BPOs) in the Philippines that operate in economic zones will be required to operate on location by September 2022, when the extension of the work-from-home set-up approved by the Fiscal and Incentives Review Board ends. 

Instead of requiring onsite work to allow the effective monitoring of fiscal incentives, Mr. Khatiwada said that “tax agencies will need to create innovative ways to strengthen tax surveillance and compliance in hybrid or remote work arrangements.” 

Cognitive jobs that can be done remotely include product design, software development, and call center operations. Back-office operations can also be done from home, although these are at risk of automation, according to Mr. Khatiwada

In a May 17 ADB blog, he differentiated cognitive jobs from manual jobs that cannot be done from home, such as driving a truck or waiting tables at a café. 

According to a 2012 study in the Philippine Review of Economics that examined 427 occupations, only 8%–10% have all tasks classified as remote; 35%–37% cannot be done remotely. The rest are a combination of onsite and remote tasks. 

The pandemic hit some occupations harder than others. Service sectors such as those in food and transportation were casualties of the lockdown and physical distancing measures. So were those in manufacturing and construction who had to cope with these disruptions. 

SOCIAL PROTECTION 

Self-employed workers were likewise harder hit than their salaried counterparts, per ADB’s December 2021 research on the Southeast Asian labor market. The study noted that this segment tends to be in the informal sector, and that those who were lower-skilled were less likely to shift to teleworking.  

As such, they face a higher risk of unemployment and income loss during times of crisis. 

Freelancers can make their incomes more crisis-proof if they can diversify their clients, including by expanding their skillsets to related areas, Mr. Khatiwada said.  

“The pandemic has also highlighted that — given the non-standard form of employment contracts of freelancers — many were ineligible for government support and the safety nets put in place during the pandemic,” he added. “There is a need to rethink and build more comprehensive, inclusive, and sustainable employment or income insurance schemes moving forward.” 

Either an expanded social unemployment insurance or an income protection scheme can be enacted by the government to support all workers’ transition to the “future of work,” according to Kelly Bird, Philippines country director for ADB. 

“Two alternative models that could be applicable to the Philippines is the Malaysian employment insurance scheme and the Chilean unemployment insurance scheme, [the latter of which] comprises of individual savings accounts and a government Solidarity Fund,” he told BusinessWorld in an e-mail. “The second intervention is enterprise-based skills development schemes that allow workers access to lifelong skills training.” 

ADB, Mr. Bird added, is collaborating with the trade and industry, labor and employment, and tourism departments to pilot SkillsUpNet Philippines. 

“This will provide grant funding to networks of enterprises in priority sectors to skill up or reskill workers and job seekers,” he said.  

With these, “networks can incorporate digital skills training, which [in turn] can support hybrid work arrangements.” 

Added Mr. Khatiwada: “Remote work is not possible without connectivity, so governments need to prioritize investments in infrastructure that allow workers to be productive in a hybrid setting.” said Mr. 

Nine of 10 employees prefer a hybrid or remote work setup, based on a survey of 8,184 workers by Sprout Solutions in January. — PBM

Shanghai’s fashion stores struggle to clear lockdown stock hangover

IFC Mall in Shanghai. -- Stefan Wagener/Flickr/CC BY 2.0

SHANGHAI — Almost a month since Shanghai lifted its strict coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) lockdowns, fashion retailers are stuck with piles of unsold stock as cautious consumers stay away from the commercial hub’s glitzy shopping districts.

Curbs to stop the virus in Shanghai, China’s fashion capital, ground the city of 25 million to a halt in April and May, leaving clothing and beauty product displays in stores untouched and containers of imported apparel stranded at port.

The city’s re-opening this month saw a flood of goods ship from warehouses to store shelves already laden with merchandise unsold during two months of lockdown. Normally around a fifth of all imported goods coming into China pass through Shanghai’s port.

Days after COVID-19 curbs eased, large “sales” signs went up across Shanghai, with retailers from Lululemon to Victoria’s Secret offering discounts to lure shoppers.

Even online retailers have struggled to clear a glut caused by lockdowns and supply interruptions.

“This affected us a lot,” said Josh Gardner, founder and chief executive of China market e-commerce partner Kung Fu Data, which manages online stores for 10 fashion brands, including G-Star Raw.

“In April, May on (China’s major e-commerce) platforms, there wasn’t a T-shirt to be found, we were sold out of summer stock and so was everyone else, there was just no product,” he said. “Now, everyone’s just bleeding and stuck with a lot of inventory they can’t move.”

China is a major market for personal luxury goods companies with sales reaching $74.4 billion in 2021, according to Bain.

One consultancy estimated that sales during “618” — a major shopping event in China from May 31 to June 20 — across the main e-commerce sites, such as Tmall and JD.com, were flat year-on-year.

In the event’s opening week, data from Tmall showed men’s wear sales had dropped 22% and women’s wear was down 4%, although activewear sales rose 26%, possibly due to an increased focus on fitness during the lockdown.

For now, some retailers are warehousing inventory and ordering less for the fourth quarter when they will try to clear existing stock through November’s Singles’ Day.

“For the apparel category, due to the epidemic and sluggish consumption, there is a high level of inventory backlog of spring collections,” JD.com chief executive Lei Xu said following the online retailer’s first quarter earnings. “As a result, many factories are considering skipping their … summer collections.”

Flash sales specialists OnTheList, which sells luxury products for brands including Versace, Jimmy Choo, and Lanvin at discounts of 70% or more, re-opened its physical Shanghai showroom last weekend with a sale from Salvatore Ferragamo.

The high-end Italian fashion brand and almost all other retailers in Shanghai closed stores throughout April and May. Salvatore Ferragamo declined to comment.

Jean Liang, OnTheList’s China managing director, said luxury brands are now more open to online sales, as well as offline sales, while cosmetics brands are pro-actively looking to hold sales to clear excess inventory.

“Before it was always us pitching asking them about their plans and now they approach us, which means they have inventory they need to clean out to have a healthy stock situation,” she said. OnTheList’s calendar of flash sales, which run every few days, is already booked through to September.

Sending products abroad to be distributed in Europe or America is another solution but is currently complicated by surging shipping and air transport costs, said Benny Wong, supply chain director at online wholesale marketplace, Peeba.

“Now the main hurdle is transportation … that creates a big problem for the inventory owner,” he said. “Inventory can kill (and) some product categories have huge inventory to move.”

CONSUMERS WARY

Weeks after re-opening, retail sentiment is downbeat with Shanghai’s consumers yet to return to malls in significant numbers and footfall around half its usual levels in major downtown malls, according to retail staff.

People in Shanghai are reluctant to return to indoor public areas largely out of fear of being locked down again, as China’s dogged zero-COVID policies demand each time new infections emerge.

A continued ban on in-restaurant dining also means malls remain without their usual food and beverage attractions.

Across China, retail sales slipped 6.7% in May from a year earlier, extending the previous month’s 11.1% decline, as a slowdown in the world’s second-largest economy discouraged consumer spending.

“In terms of inventory clearance there’s not really a good solution in China,” Kung Fu Data’s Mr. Gardner said. “I mean, what are you going to do that’s not going to destroy your brand?” — Casey Hall/Reuters

US vows more high-level engagement with Pacific islands amid China push

REUTERS

WASHINGTON — White House Indo-Pacific coordinator Kurt Campbell said on Thursday he expects more high-level US officials to visit Pacific island countries as Washington steps up its engagement to counter China in the strategically important region.

Mr. Campbell said the United States needed more diplomatic facilities across the region, and more contact with Pacific island countries that at times “receive lesser attention.”

“You will see more cabinet-level, more senior officials, going to the Pacific … recognizing that nothing replaces, really, diplomatic boots on the ground,” he told Washington’s Center for Strategic and International Studies.

The Biden administration has vowed to commit more resources to the Indo-Pacific as China seeks to boost economic, military and police links with Pacific island nations hungry for foreign investment.

Beijing’s growing influence was highlighted by its security pact with the Solomon Islands this year, a move that fanned concerns in Australia, New Zealand, and the United States.

“Sovereignty is central in terms of how we see the Pacific overall. Any initiative that compromises or calls into question that sovereignty, I think we would have concerns with,” Mr. Campbell said, without referring to China.

Washington has said it will expedite the opening of an embassy in the Solomon Islands, announced earlier this year when Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited Fiji, the first trip there by America’s top diplomat in four decades.

Mr. Campbell said he envisioned Fiji would be one of the United States’ “hubs” of engagement.

“Our mantra will be nothing in the Pacific without the Pacific … we do not take these bonds for granted,” he said, acknowledging perceptions that Washington had not always sufficiently taken the needs of islanders into account.

Monica Medina, responsible for Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs at the US State Department, said areas where Pacific islands particularly needed help included coping with climate change and countering illegal fishing.

“We know we have much, much, much more work to do,” she said.

Fiji’s UN ambassador, Satyendra Prasad, told the CSIS event the islands needed “great predictability” and no “stop-start” in ties with Washington.

“Pacific people and their governments would welcome an enduring partnership with the US that is there for the long-term,” he said.

Samoa’s UN envoy said there was a need to see whether a US treaty with the Pacific covering tuna could be expanded into a wider trade agreement.

“I think that is already under consideration,” Fatumanava-o-Upolu III Pa’olelei Luteru said. “That’s something that would be very helpful.”

Washington could also help by supporting the UN-driven Multi-Dimensional Vulnerability Index to help island nations access concessional financing.

In apparent reference to China’s attraction, Mr. Luteru said politicians had a responsibility to their people.

“If … you ask a particular country and they are not able to help you, you then have a choice to say no, we’re not going to provide that service to the people; or you go to another country that perhaps is not the traditional partner, and you say to them, can you help us?” he said. — Michael Martina and David Brunnstrom/Reuters

PHINMA Corp. to conduct annual stockholders’ meeting through remote communication on July 14

 


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Monkeypox case count rises to more than 3,200 globally — WHO

A SECTION of skin tissue, harvested from a lesion on the skin of a monkey, that had been infected with monkeypox virus. — CENTERS FOR DISEASE CONTROL AND PREVENTION

More than 3,200 confirmed monkeypox cases and one death were reported to the World Health Organization as part of the current outbreak. 

There is need for intensified surveillance in the broader community, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Thursday, adding that cases in non-endemic countries were still predominantly among men who have sex with men. 

“Person-to-person transmission is ongoing and is likely underestimated,” Mr. Tedros said at a meeting of the International Health Regulations (2005) Emergency Committee. 

The meeting of experts was convened by the WHO to decide whether to declare monkeypox a global health emergency. 

A “public health emergency of international concern” is WHO’s highest level of alert. Forty-eight countries have reported cases in the current outbreak, which began in May. 

There had been almost 1,500 suspected cases of monkeypox this year in Central Africa and 70 deaths, Mr. Tedros said. 

The WHO head called on member states to share information on the virus as it would help the agency in its goal to support countries to contain transmission. — Reuters