Dubai’s logistics giant, DP World, an alliance for global vaccine distribution

DUBAI, UAE – Dubai-based logistics company DP World has helped launch a vaccine logistics alliance to accelerate the distribution of Covid-19 vaccines worldwide.

More than a year after Covid-19 began to spread around the world, the race for vaccination continues. More than 170 million shots have been fired in 77 countries, and Israel and the United Arab Emirates lead the vaccination rate. Rich countries have ended the blows, leaving in the dark continents like Africa and South America on the path to a global recovery.

“We will deploy all the facilities we have and our geographical extent,” DP World President and CEO Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem told CNBC’s Hadley Gamble in an exclusive interview Monday. “Whatever we have, we will deploy it because this pandemic will not go away unless everyone gets vaccinated,” Sulayem said.

DP World’s ports, terminals and logistics operations spanning six continents handle 10% of world trade, based on annual volumes of containers shipped around the world. Initially founded as a local port operator, the company now has 90 locations spread across 60 countries.

The advantage of DP World, says its president, is the company’s access to remote areas and its ability to transport vaccines to places many others don’t know about. The alliance will deploy the scope of Dubai, Emirates Group and Dubai Humanitarian City airports, all working to transport, store and distribute vaccines to more remote corners of the world.

These sites include DP World’s logistics center in Kigali, Rwanda and a multi-purpose port in Paramaribo, Suriname, to name two of the various continents in Africa and South America, respectively.

And the company’s Dubai home, widely regarded as the region’s travel and business hub, prides itself on being close to two-thirds of the world’s population in just eight hours. “Dubai is one of the busiest airports with amazing connectivity across all airlines,” Sulayem said.

In addition to the Dubai Logistics Alliance, DP World will also lend its expertise to UNICEF to help distribute vaccines to low- and middle-income countries.

More than two-thirds of the vaccine doses available in the world have been collected by governments representing only one-sixth of the world’s population, leaving much of the developing world with an indefinite period of no hope of firing Covid-19 for its populations.

“Africa is far behind,” African billionaire and philanthropist Mo Ibrahim told CNBC. There is a “growing tide of what is called vaccine nationalism. All rich countries are fighting among themselves to find out who can have more vaccines,” Ibrahim said.

Sulayem of DP World also noted that vaccine nationalism could prolong the pandemic. “There are more than 12 billion vaccines produced, but 9 billion [are] already booked by Western countries, which actually makes up about 14% of the population, ”he said.

The pandemic has claimed nearly 2.4 million lives and infected more than 108 million people, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University and the World Health Organization. The Dubai Alliance will support the WHO’s COVAX initiative, an independent alliance that aims to deliver vaccines to the world’s poorest countries, and its efforts to equitably distribute two billion doses of Covid-19 vaccines by 2021.

Currently, Dubai residents can sign up to get the Pfizer, AstraZeneca or Sinopharm vaccine. The introduction of new hits in the market requires the approval of the country, including the implementation of clinical trials, which DP World has told CNBC could be ready.

“We are talking to Moderna. Moderna is a newcomer to this and her vaccine is good,” Sulayem said of the American pharmaceutical giant, whose shot was approved for use in the US in December. He added that DP World is currently talking to Moderna about how and where the logistics company can help distribute its vaccine.

Moderna did not respond to a request for comment from CNBC.