Story by Abigirl Tembo, Health Editor
Zimbabwe has expressed readiness to tap into Egypt‘s expertise in the health sector as the country seeks to further strengthen its health delivery system.
This comes after Zimbabwe was invited to Egypt to attend the largest medical conference and exhibition on the continent, the Africa Health Excon, which kicks off this Tuesday in Cairo.
Running under the theme: ‘Placing Africa as a Continental Hub for Health Innovation and Trade’, the three-day conference is expected to create a platform for world healthcare buyers and suppliers to connect under one roof.
It also presents a great opportunity for African countries to exchange experiences and knowledge in the field of health care.
Vice President General (Retired) Dr Constantino Chiwenga, who is also the Minister of Health and Child Care is attending the conference.
Upon arrival at the Cairo International Airport this Monday, Vice President Chiwenga said the conference is a great opportunity for Zimbabwe to secure partnerships to further strengthen its healthcare sector.
“As you are aware, this is now my second time attending this Africa Health ExCon here in Cairo. It has benefited us already and it is going to benefit Zimbabwe quite a lot. As you are aware Egypt and Zimbabwe have already signed an MOU on cooperation in the medical field. It is not just cooperation in the medical field, but we want to go further to exchange ideas and Egypt is quite far in terms of pharmaceutical development and we want to cooperate in that area. We want to look at other different areas of our relationship between Zimbabwe and Egypt. What is it we can do economically in the different fields? We will be discussing these in the side meetings,” said the Vice President.
Egyptian Minister of Health and Population, Professor Khaled Abdel Ghaffar said Africa should stop depending on other countries to solve its problems.
“I thank His Excellency for accepting our invitation, he is a great friend to Egypt from the beginning and as well as a great friend to me and we are delighted to have him for the second time to attend the African Health Excon meeting. His Excellency, being the minister of health as well as the Vice President of Zimbabwe is quite aware of the health issues in Africa so sharing experiences with His Excellency with Egypt and for the sake of the continent is very important.
“I am conveying also a greeting message from His Excellency the President of the Arab Republic of Egypt who will be delighted to see him tomorrow during the opening ceremony of the conference. We will have a very important meeting with the prime minister of Egypt where they will discuss more the different ways of corporation between Egypt and Zimbabwe in different sectors and certainly the health sector. So tomorrow from the beginning of the opening ceremony and for the next 3 days, we will have discussions about manufacturing, common partnerships in medicine in medical equipment as well as also the challenges that we face as an African continent that we all share and how we can depend on our own resources so that we can complement our resources and not depending. We have learnt a big lesson during COVID-19 and we need to learn from those lessons so as to build our own destiny and build our own resources depending on our continent’s activities and capabilities,” he said.
Delegates from various Zimbabwean ministries, including the Ministry of Health and Child Care, Industry and Commerce and parastatals which fall under these ministries which include the National Pharmaceutical Company of Zimbabwe and the Zimbabwe Investment Development Agency will be looking for strategic partnerships to strengthen the local pharmaceutical industry.
The President of Egypt, His Excellency Abdel Fattah El-Sisi is expected to officially open the conference.
