Check against delivery

I am very pleased to be here today to address this meeting of experts and high officials from Norway, India and a number of other countries.

This is an important meeting about fulfilling global aspirations and building a strategy for cooperation between Norway and India.

I would like to thank the Research Council of Norway for organising this meeting at such short notice, and the University of Bergen for agreeing to host it and welcoming us so warmly. This is not the first time the University of Bergen has shown itself to be an internationally oriented university, situated as it is in a very internationally oriented city.

I was here last year to address the meeting of GAVI – the Global Alliance for Vaccination and Immunisation. And it is good to be back here today to speak on some of the same issues, but pushing the agenda several steps further.

In 2000 all the member states of the United Nations agreed on eight targets they wanted to reach by 2015 – the Millennium Development Goals.

These goals represent our common hopes and aspirations. They are the yardstick by which human progress is measured.

So far, the world’s efforts have fallen short of those goals.

However, I sincerely and deeply believe that it is within human reach

To realize, fully, some of these goals.

And we need to realize these goals. For humanity’s sake.

And also for the sake of the importance we attach to the promises we make.

That is why Norway, while working on all the MDGs, has decided to take a lead on one of them – namely MDG 4, to reduce child mortality by two thirds by 2015.

By doing so, we hope to show that it is possible to reach the MDGs if we give them the focus and attention they deserve.

The most effective way to reduce child mortality is to ensure that all children are vaccinated against the most common diseases.

More than 10 million children under the age of five die every year.

One in four of these could be saved by vaccines that are already available, or that will be available in the near future.

But we must now take our commitment further, to address other causes of child mortality. We can do this when we enable a health worker to reach a child in a village with vaccines. Because the same health worker can also reach the child with other life-saving tools – sometimes as simple as a mosquito net.

Some of you have been working very hard during the last two days, looking at these issues, and trying to develop a roadmap for reaching MDG4.

In this effort we welcome our new partnership with India.

India is the one single country that has most to gain from reducing child mortality.

And India has considerable assets that can be used to achieve that goal

– it has increasing economic and political strength, both regionally and globally.

And it is emerging as a global power in the production of vaccines and other health technologies.

I have invited an international group of experts to advise me on how to take the MDG 4 agenda forward.

I wanted the group to be rooted in national experiences and to be aware of national considerations.

I wanted the best starting point possible. I am therefore delighted to have India as our first partner.

When I visited India last December, I had some very constructive talks with President Kalam, Prime Minister Singh and Minister of Science and Technology Sibal, among others, and we decided that we would focus more on scientific cooperation.

I am very pleased to say that a bilateral agreement between Norway and India on cooperation in the field of science and technology will soon be concluded.

During our talks, we identified vaccine biotechnology as an area with a particularly large potential for fruitful collaboration.

I hope that the on-going dialogue between Norwegian and Indian specialists during and after this seminar will lead to effective and mutually rewarding cooperation in this vitally important field.

Knowing that you have support from the governments, both of Norway and India, will hopefully spur your efforts.

We encourage you to establish concrete projects for collaboration on vaccine biotechnology and in the wider field of biotechnology.

I believe this kind of cooperation is most effective when the research and technical institutions themselves identify the areas where they can best complement each other.

They know where collaboration can multiply the benefits for both parties – facilitated by governments.

The meeting here represents two of the central conditions that have to be met if we are to reach our goal: strategic planning and scientific advances.

But there is also a third condition that we need to meet: financing.

Vaccination is one of the most cost-effective ways of fighting child mortality. Immunising a child against the most common diseases costs only USD 20.

Personally I became convinced that what we are doing is necessary and possible at a meeting of the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization five years ago

It was then, as a father, that I was sensitized to the injustice that all Norwegian infants are immunized, whereas in parts of Asia and Africa only one in five received this magic shot.

As an economist, I could appreciate that immunization is the most cost-effective means of preventing disease and child mortality and that vaccine programmes are key to economic growth in poor countries.

As a politician I have the privilege to do something about it.

As of 2006, Norway will allocate NOK 500 million a year to vaccine-related efforts. That is about USD 75 million.

And we are committed to contributing the same amount every year until 2015. The bulk of this money will be channelled through GAVI.

However, I am happy to announce today that my government will earmark NOK
50 million a year of this money for vaccination-related research.

This will be allocated to Norwegian scientists working in collaboration with international partners, not least India.

The allocations will be made on the basis of clear criteria and independent reviews of project proposals.

Support for other areas of biotechnology that will also be discussed during the meeting here will be considered in the national budget for 2007.

Our Indian counterparts have indicated they will match our contributions.

During the next 10 years we can expect to see a revolution in the way vaccines are produced, financed and distributed. We can also expect great progress in the development of new vaccines.

But this will demand certain efforts on our part. We must support research that leads to new and better vaccines. We must make sure that these vaccines are produced. And we must make them available to the people who don’t have access to vaccination programmes today.

Norway and India will work together to do just this.