Egypt's Minister of Health and Population, Khaled Abdel Ghaffar, participated in a meeting of the World Economic Forum initiative to support local manufacturing, which was held on the sidelines of the 78th session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York. The meeting was attended by the Minister of Health of Indonesia, Budi Junadi Sadikin, representatives of the World Health Organization, the GAVI Alliance for Vaccines and Serums, a number of officials from the World Bank, the African Finance Bank, the Asian Finance Bank, and the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the CBEI Group. Hossam Abdel Ghaffar, the official spokesperson for the Ministry of Health and Population, explained that the meeting discussed the challenges facing countries in localizing pharmaceutical industries and vaccines, and cooperation mechanisms between countries in the fields of research, development, and technology transfer. Abdel Ghaffar added that the minister presented the capabilities of the Egyptian state, in terms of infrastructure, human, and research capabilities, which qualify it to be a regional centre for manufacturing vaccines and medical diagnostics. In his intervention, the minister also touched on mechanisms for overcoming the obstacles facing countries, and cooperation between concerned parties, to ensure the safety of supply chains to secure the needs of countries and ensure justice in the distribution of vaccines, medical supplies, and all pharmaceutical preparations. Abdel Ghaffar pointed out that the Minister of Health reviewed the successful Egyptian expertise and experiences in cooperating with many leading countries in manufacturing vaccines, transferring manufacturing technology, and safe storage, to achieve self-sufficiency, and working to open export markets and contribute to providing countries' needs. Furthermore, the Egyptian minister reviewed some models of fruitful cooperation between the public and private sectors, as well as the Ministry of Health and Population's support for cooperation between the local and international private sectors, to achieve the maximum possible benefit for the Egyptian people.
