Bilateral Discussions held with Minister of Food Safety, New Zealand

Bilateral Discussions held with Minister of Food Safety, New Zealand

Shri. Ashwini Kumar Choubey, Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare and  Mr. Damien O’Connor, Minister of Agriculture, Minister for Biosecurity, Food Safety and Rural Communities and Minister of State for Trade and Export Growth Government of the New Zealand held bilateral discussions at Nirman Bhavan

During the bilateral meeting, Shri. Choubey highlighted the new initiative taken by Government of India to achieve Universal Health Coverage (UHC) by way of an ambitious programme called “Ayushman Bharat” i.e. Long live India. He also mentioned that India has both a fast growing research and development industry in the health sector and an increasingly important role as a producer of quality generic medicines which are affordable. “Drugs from India are exported to more than 180 countries. A major chunk of such exports relate to generic drugs which India has been able to offer at competitive rates while maintaining requisite quality”, Shri. Choubey added.

Both Ministers appreciated the progress made under the MoU on Food Security between Food Safety and Standards Authority of India and the Ministry of Primary Industry of New Zealand. On underlining the advances made in the Indian Pharma Industry and health care, both the Ministers agreed to further strengthen the cooperation in these sectors.