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When Bill Gates met Tahir
During a recent workshop with a group of Asian journalists at the headquarters of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria in Geneva, Christoph Benn pointed out the urgent need for the involvement of more Asian philantropists to help fund the global war against the three deadly diseases
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uring a recent workshop with a group of Asian journalists at the headquarters of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria in Geneva, Christoph Benn pointed out the urgent need for the involvement of more Asian philantropists to help fund the global war against the three deadly diseases.
Benn, the external director of the Global Fund, held up as an example Dato' Sri Dr. Tahir, the chairman of the Mayapada Group and Tahir Foundation and the single largest private donor from the emerging economies to the organization. Tahir's foundation is also the largest donor to the Global Fund after the Bill and Melinda Foundation Gates Foundation.
'Dr. Tahir is our second largest donor after Bill Gates. We do hope he will be followed by more Asian philantropists,' said Benn.
Tahir and Gates signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on the former's readiness to contribute US$100 million for a five-year health program with Bill Gates in Abu Dhabi in April last year. The Gates' foundation will match Tahir's input. Of the $200 million fund, $150 million will be used to help the eradication of HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria in Indonesia.
The remaining $50 million will be allocated to aid the global fight against polio, which is still rampant in Nigeria, Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Speaking to reporters before the signing ceremony, Tahir joked that he mistakenly cited a figure to Gates' staff during a preliminary discussion with the foundation.
'Actually I intended to donate just $1 million, but because of my poor English, I wrongly said $100 million,' he said and burst into laughter.
Tahir stated his desire to pioneer philanthropy, which is still very new among the richest Asian people, despite being very strong in the West.
In October last year, Tahir and Bill Gates announced the two foundations' decision that each of them would invest $75 million in the Global Fund's operation in Indonesia, and a further $20 million to support family planning. Melinda Gates has a keen interest in reprodutive health.
The co-founder of Microsoft, who manages his foundation's $38 billion fund, toured several Asian countries, including trips to Jakarta and Beijing in April this year to persuade more tycoons to join him. In Jakarta he set up the Indonesia Health Fund with Tahir.
According to Forbes Asia, 20 Indonesian business leaders agreed to jointly commit $100 million for the next five years to help the Global Fund's family program and global polio eradication campaign.
Forbes has also reported that Vietnamese tycooon Van Kiem Le, chairman of Long Thanh Golf Investment and Trading, and his daughter Le Ny Thuy Duong have agreed to set up a Vietnam Health Fund for 10 families to jointly commit $50 million over 5 years to support similar causes.
The Gates Foundation always matches the amount donated by its partners.
In Beijing, Gates also called on Chinese tycoons to give more to the poor and the needy. As quoted by Reuters, Bill Gates wrote in the People's Daily that 'China has many successful entrepreneurs and business people. I hope that more people of insight will put their talents to work to improve the lives of poor people in China and around the world, and seek solutions for them.' ' JP
