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Mukudzei Chingwere

Herald Reporter

ZIMBABWE and Egypt are looking at exploiting the good diplomatic relations between the two countries and share experiences on how to improve their health services and agriculture sector.

This emerged yesterday after Vice President Constantino Chiwenga met Egyptian Ambassador to Zimbabwe Mahmoud Amer at Munhumutapa Offices in Harare.

Health and Child Care Deputy Minister Dr John Mangwiro and the ministry’s Permanent Secretary Dr Jasper Chimedza were part of the meeting with the Egyptian delegation.

The two republics discussed areas of cooperation mainly in the health and agriculture sectors.

VP Chiwenga has been working to revamp the portfolio to give every citizen access to health, while the focus on agriculture dovetails with the vision of making Zimbabwe an upper middle income society by 2030.

Ambassador Amer said: “I paid a courtesy call on Vice President Honourable Chiwenga in his capacity as well, as the Minister of Health.

“We looked at the extent of bilateral relations that we have between our countries and we discussed how to further improve them specifically in the health sector,” he said.

VP Chiwenga is leading a restructuring exercise of the health portfolio which is being used with considerable success in the fight against Covid-19.

The new model among other things is aimed at reducing exports of patients, improving research as well as a sustainable funding model.

Zimbabwe can tap into the model of the North Africans as Egypt has one of the most advanced medical systems in Africa .

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), Egypt has a network where approximately 95 percent of its population lives within a 5km radius of a health facility.

According to a report compiled by WHO, Egypt has progressed towards universal health coverage and is ensuring adequate funding for the sector.