CAIRO, June 5 (Xinhua) -- Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi pledged on Sunday to provide 30 million COVID-19 vaccine doses to African states in coordination with the African Union (AU).
"Allow me to humbly announce an initiative of providing 30 million doses of anti-coronavirus vaccines to our brothers in African states, hoping this will be coordinated with the AU," said the Egyptian president.
Sisi made the remarks at the opening of the first edition of Africa Health ExCon, a massive African medical exhibition and conference held in Cairo from June 5 to 7 under the slogan of "Your Gate to Innovation and Trade."
Egypt's state-owned vaccine producer VACSERA is jointly manufacturing Sinovac COVID-19 vaccines in cooperation with China's biopharmaceutical company Sinovac, with a future plan to become a regional center for vaccine production, storage and export in Africa.
The three-day conference is organized by Egypt's Unified Procurement Authority (UPA), with the participation of over 2,000 representatives of government health authorities from Africa and the Middle East, 350 companies from over 100 countries, as well as prominent medical figures, experts, professors and scientists.
In his remarks, Sisi encouraged cooperation among African countries in the medical field including pharmaceutical production, and invited international pharmaceutical firms to invest in Africa.
"Africa is a promising market," said the Egyptian president, stressing that about 65 percent of Africa's population are youth. ■
