Health Minister Hala Zayed participated Monday via videoconferencing in a panel discussion on "Accelerating local production through partnerships and cooperation," held as part of the first World Local Production Forum (WLPF).

Director-General of the WHO Tedros Adhanom ebreyesus, Chief Scientist at the organisation Soumya Swaminathan, Director General of South Africa's National Department of Health Sandile Buthelezi, Indonesian Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin, Acting Secretary General of the UNCTAD Isabelle Durant, and Brazilian Minister of Science and Technology Marco Pontes joined the discussion.

During her speech, Zayed hailed President Abdel Fattah El Sisi's support to boost local production of vaccines, medicines and medical supplies.

She also touched upon the government's efforts to secure all the resources needed to increase production capacity to meet local market needs, citing a national strategy for investing in local pharmaceutical production, which culminated in the recent inauguration of the Gypto Pharma City, the largest pharma city and pharmaceutical plant in the Middle East.

Zayed concluded by emphasizing the need to create an enabling environment for sustainable partnerships between member states and manufacturers, by facilitating licensing and registration processes.

She further stressed that Egypt spares no effort to stimulate local investments in pharmaceutical production to reach self-sufficiency.

This first WLPF is a virtual event held from 21-25 June 2021. It provides a global arena to stimulate dialogue and collaboration on opportunities and mechanisms for the promotion of local production and technology transfer as part of health technology programs in line with national, regional and global health needs.

The WLPF aims to call Member States’ attention in aligning the production of health products as essential long-term infrastructure akin to food, water and energy as safeguards to protect national, regional and global security. It also seeks to transform the spirit of the first interagency statement on promoting local production into practice