We believe that bilateral partnership is one of the paths to achieve better health treatment, a more resilient health system, and contribute to global effort in handling pandemic in the future.Jakarta (ANTARA) - Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin, in a written statement on Tuesday, noted that the Indonesian government cooperated with the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to develop the pharmaceutical and medical device industry.
One of the main areas of focus of cooperation is developing even more research and production capacity distributed to vaccine, therapy, and diagnostic (VTD).
This will provide better and equal access for all countries if the next pandemic emerges, he noted after meeting UAE Health and Prevention Ministry's official, Amin Al Meeri.
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This is important given that after entering the third year of the pandemic, the world is still grappling with COVID-19 as well as threats from its new variants.
To this end, access to VTD and fixing the health service system became vital components. These should be strengthened to anticipate the spike in COVID-19 cases and end the pandemic's acute phase, he expounded.
Sadikin is optimistic that Indonesia has vast potential to help in fulfilling the global pharmacy and medical device supply.
This is because Indonesia is home to more than five producers of vaccines, 220 pharmacy producers, and 650 producers of medical devices, most of whom have been acknowledged to be of global standard.
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Moreover, the country has experience in exporting products across the world.
The minister expects that this collaboration can be the path to bolstering global health architecture that is resilient to future health disaster threats.
"We believe that bilateral partnership is one of the paths to achieve better health treatment, a more resilient health system, and contribute to global effort in handling pandemic in the future," he remarked.
He also expects that this collaboration can be a major opportunity and a good start in bolstering the global health architecture that was hampered due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The government expects that cooperation in the health sector between the two countries can continue to be bolstered.
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Translator: Zubi Mahrofi, Fadhli Ruhman
Editor: Fardah Assegaf
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