Thursday, August 18 2005 13:41 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Kolkata: The United States was working with the National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO) and private sector representatives to set up a corporate fund aimed at checking the spread of the endemic in India, specially in workplaces, US Ambassador to India David Mulford said in Kolkata today (Aug 18, 2005).

"The fund will be managed by a private financial institution that will offer different options to which corporations can make contributions at the national, regional and local levels, thereby reducing the management burden on individual companies," Mulford told a Confederation Of India Industry (CII) National conference on HIV/AIDS.

The Ambassador said during President George Bush and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's recent meeting, the two countries had agreed to work together to tackle HIV/AIDS.

"There was specific agreement to explore new opportunities for public-private collaboration on AIDS product development, including increasing capacity in India to conduct clinical trials," he said.

As part of this, president Bush announced new funding of seven million dollar to scale up prevent efforts, including an emphasis on workplace programmes.

"I hope that Indian corporate leaders will join American businesses to respond with additional HIV/AIDS funding of their own", he added.

India was one of the five high priority countries under President Bush's HIV initiative with his country providing 30 million dollars towards AIDS control in India and US Government agencies working in high prevalence states, including the Northeast, he said.