Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates reportedly wrote a letter to President Moon Jae-in recently to express hope to work together with Moon and South Korea in efforts to fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.

Presidential spokesperson Yoon Jae- kwan said in a press briefing on Sunday that Gates, the head of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, sent the letter to President Moon last Monday.

The spokesperson said that Gates, in the letter, highly praised Moon's leadership and South Korea's anti-virus responses, expressing hope that the Seoul government and the Gates Foundation will strengthen cooperation.

In particular, Gates reportedly lauded that South Korea is leading not only in anti-virus quarantine measures but also in the development of vaccines in the private sector.

Gates said that if SK Bioscience, a South Korean vaccine researcher and developer, succeeds in developing a vaccine to treat the virus, it could produce some 200 million vaccines a year from June next year.

The firm has won three-point-six million dollars in research funding from the foundation to develop a COVID-19 vaccine.

In addition, Gates reportedly pledged to expand the foundation's investment in Right Fund, a nongovernmental agency that it set up in 2018 together with South Korea's Health Ministry to help developing countries resolve public health problems.