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The Minister of Health, Hon. Kwaku Agyeman-Manu (MP for Dormaa central),  has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Gruppo San Donato and Universita Vita-Salute San Raffaele, both Italy based organisations with the objective of providing a legal framework within which the parties may conduct their relationship and set out modalities of cooperation.

While the MoU does not create any contractual relationship between the parties, it sets the grounds for the parties to work together in the true spirit of partnership. Under the MOU, the parties have agreed to explore the joint development of an excellence center in Ghana and to support and encourage cooperation in distant medical consultations for international patients.

All telemedicine cooperation projects, entered into under the MoU, will obey national legislations with medical specialties and scope of activities determined by both Parties.

Both parties will also explore annual visits, and will support Ghana with training opportunities for its health professionals as well as explore Scientific research and academic exchange by both parties.

This MoU was signed on the side-lines of the second European Corporate Council On Africa And Middle East (ECAM) held in Italy from October 31 to November 1 2021.

Presentation

Making a presentation at the conference on the theme: “The role of Ghana as a strategic regional healthcare hub in West Africa”, Hon Agyeman-Manu said Ghana has identified Medical tourism as a key agenda of the Government to move the country’s health system forward. With Agenda 111, and the country’s management of COVID-19, he noted that Ghana stands ready to lead in medical service delivery in West Africa with advancement in infrastructure, medical service value chain, education and research.

He added that the country is also working on an agenda of ‘Ghana Beyond Aid’ and ensuring it achieves Universal Health Coverage (UHC). To this end, Ghana has put together the key architectural documentations to ensure it is able to embark on PPPs. The measures include the PPP Act. 1039 of 2020 and a policy document.

He added that the country is also going to focus on medical services where it has comparative advantages such as cardiothoracic surgery, invitro fertilization and other fertility solutions, orthopaedics, traditional medicine, among others.

“We plan to ensure we gain international accreditation seals on our facilities to ensure we achieve this. We plan to deploy a lot of technology in our medical tourism drive. This will include but not limited to e health, m health, artificial intelligence etc,” he said.

A key set back identified, Hon Agyeman-Manu stated, is the “fact that government resources alone cannot enable us to achieve this” calling on private capital all over the world, including Italy, to join hands with Ghana.

He said Ghana aims to link with Italian companies to collaborate and acquire support to develop a National Vaccine Institute.

He emphasised that the world must ensure that digital revolution benefits everyone and that no country can survive alone without strategic partners.

Collaboration

Vice-Chairman of the Normandy region and CEO of E4I Impact said E4I Impact aims to train entrepreneurs in Africa, contribute to human capital development and bridge the gap between African and Italian companies.

She disclosed that they are currently working in 17 African countries and have been in Ghana since 2013, working with the University of Professional Studies in Ghana to train entrepreneurs.

She added that they are also providing bridges between local entrepreneurs and Italian companies and are operating more in the agriculture value chain, social housing and ehealth.

Hon Agyeman-Manu welcomed the collaboration and emphasized the importance of entrepreneurship to Ghana with it growing youth population. He indicated that he would link E4I with the Ministry of Trade and Industry.

The Hon Minister said COVID-19 has taught the world the importance of a value based multilateral system saying what happened in China is affecting everyone in the world.