Day: February 20, 2023

Health Minister Dr Khaled Abdel Ghaffar said Monday that the Egyptian Health Council (EHC) seeks to achieve the highest levels of patient safety as part of Egypt’s 2030 vision.

A healthy and safe life is in the heart of this vision, said Abdel Ghaffar during a meeting, the first, of the EHC board.

The minister stressed the importance to have all parties and authorities concerned with the health sector among the EHC board, said Health Ministry spokesman Dr Hossam Abdel Ghaffar.

It is also important to form specialized committees to implement goals of the EHC, the spokesman quoted the minister as having said.

CEO of the EHC Dr Mohamed Latif said they are working to upgrade medical training and hone skills of graduates of the different medicine faculties where safe medical and health practices are concerned.

The EHC aims to achieve integration and cooperation with all scientific authorities inside Egypt and abroad and in line with international standards of safe health practices, Dr Latif added.

Source: State Information Service Egypt

Minister of Manpower Hassan Shehata asserted that the Ministry of Manpower is keen on interaction, cooperation and coordination with all the social partners inside and outside Egypt to implement the visions and common goals that serve sustainable development.

This came during a ceremony to ink a cooperation protocol on a program on higher education for vocational guidance for employment between the Ministry of Higher Education, the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office and office of International Labor Organization (ILO) which aim at supporting the vocational track of students to link them in a better way with the loabor market.

Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research Ayman Ashour, UK Ambassador to Egypt Gareth Bayley, Chairman of the Federation of Egyptian Industries Mohamed el Swedey and Director of ILO office in Cairo Eric Oechslin attended the ceremony.

Shehata said that his ministry has a number of initiatives and joint projects with social partners inside the country and abroad that aim at boosting business relations and connecting trained labor with the internal and external labor markets.

The minister lauded the interactive platform of the ministry, pointing out that it will benefit the labor markets.

Source: State Information Service Egypt

A Fitch report has said that Egypt continued to boost its international position as the biggest medicine producer in the Middle East and North Africa.

This came in an infographic issued by the Information and Decision Support Center (IDSC) as part of efforts to monitor international reports about Egypt.

Fitch said the Egyptian government continues to press ahead with its ambitious goals for strengthening the local pharmaceutical industry and healthcare sector in Egypt.

Additionally, the government has looked to both fast-track public health center development through greater private sector investment and expedite the digitalisation in the pharmaceutical industry as part of the broader aim of achieving universal health coverage, said Fitch.

Fitch has forecasted that Egypt’s exports of drugs will go up by this year, the IDSC said.

The report said that Egypt managed to offer health care and medical treatment to more than 3 million people in 2022 at costs of EGP 15.5bln.

It shed light on Fitch forecast about the increase of expenditure on drugs in Egypt from EGP 59 in 2022 to EGP 66 billion in 2023.

In April 2021, Egypt inaugurated the largest factory for medications in the Middle East and North Africa to provide 150 million of 150 types of medications.

Source: State Information Service Egypt

The political leadership has provided unprecedented support to the agriculture sector over the past eight years, affirmed Agriculture and Land Reclamation Minister El Sayyed el Quseir.

He also cited the political leadership’s affirmation that agriculture plays a major role in economic growth.

The political leadership also issues constant directives to expand in the production of strategic crops, affirmed the minister during his speech at the Senate’s plenary session on Monday to clarify the agricultural policies of the government in light of the ensuing local and regional challenges.

The government has increased investments earmarked to the agriculture sector over the past years, he added.

The minister further referred to the several national agriculture projects which have been implemented in the country over the past period.

The agriculture sector represents a main pillar in the national economy, contributing more than 15 percent of the country’s gross domestic product, the minister went on to say.

Citing a recent report issued by Fitch Solutions, the minister said that the agriculture sector is one of the target sectors to attract more foreign direct investment (FDI).

The Egyptian government is taking serious steps to curb inflation, increase local production and exports, reduce reliance on imports, and bolster both foreign investment and foreign exchange reserves, the minister quoted the report as saying.

As per the report, Egypt’s agricultural exports exceeded 6.4 million tons in 2022, making a fresh high record, with an increase of more than 624,000 tons from 2021, said the minister.

In 2022, Egypt opened 16 new markets for its agricultural products to help raise exports, according to the report.

The report also shed light on the existence of various investment opportunities in the agriculture sector, topped by the land reclamation projects, including the New Delta project, which is located in an area of one million acres, said the minister.

Source: State Information Service Egypt

Egypt is keen on boosting economic relations with Uzbekistan, said Trade and Industry Minister Ahmed Samir Monday.

Uzbekistan is an important country in central Asia, Samir said during a meeting with visiting Uzbek Deputy Prime Minister Jamshid Khodjaev earlier in the day.

Samir said Uzbekistan could serve as a gate for Egyptian exports to central Asian markets. He added that his Ministry is looking forward to benefiting from Uzbekistan’s big industrial experiments.

The meeting took up means to enhance trade exchange, as well as industrial and investment cooperation between the two countries in the coming stage, the minister further said.

The ministers also reviewed a number of economic files of mutual concern, and the situation of the global economy, a statement by the Ministry read.

Samir posted Khodjaev on big business opportunities in Egypt, whether the production or service sectors. Investors in Egypt could very well benefit from free trade deals sealed between Cairo and other governments that are members in major global economic entities, the minister noted.

He called for establishing a joint business council between Egypt and Uzbekistan to help push forward economic and trade cooperation.

Samir put the volume of trade exchange between Egypt and Uzbekistan last year at about 49.9 million dollars, up 7 percent on about 46.6 million dollars achieved the year before.

Khodjaev, for his part, said that Tashkent eyes enhanced trade, industrial and investment cooperation with Cairo. Egypt is one of the pivotal countries in the Middle East and North Africa region, he said, stressing that Uzbek companies are interested in doing business in the Arab country, especially at the Suez Canal Economic Zone (SCZone).

He made it clear that Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev is scheduled to visit Cairo soon, especially after Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El Sisi’s historic visit to Uzbekistan in 2018.

Source: State Information Service Egypt

Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouli has underscored the importance of development projects carried out in the Suez Canal Economic Zone (SCZONE) to attract further promising investments for this area.

The premier’s remarks came on Monday at a meeting with Walid Gamal Eddin, president of the SCZONE general authority, to follow up on progress in the implementation of investment projects in the zone.

Madbouli directed to continue exerting efforts to promote investments in the economic zone.

For his part, Gamal Eddin shed light on a number of carried out projects and the progress achieved in some others in the areas of water desalination and the development of the ports of East Port Said, Al Adabiya and Al Arish.

He also highlighted the progress in implementing infrastructure and development projects in the industrial zone in the canal area.

He reviewed the results of his recent fruitful tour in Japan, where he met a delegation of the Japan Overseas Infrastructure Investment Corporation (JOIN) to probe investment opportunities available in the zone.

Source: State Information Service Egypt