Full Speech: President Museveni opens the World Health Summit

SPEECH   BY H.E. YOWERI KAGUTA MUSEVENI PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF UGANDA AT THE OCCASION OF THE WORLD HEALTH SUMMIT REGIONAL MEETING 27TH JUNE,2021-SPEKE RESORT    -MUNYONYO

The Director General of the World Health Organization;Your Excellencies, Ambassadors and High Commissioners;The Director, Africa Center for Disease Control and Prevention; The Executive President Siemens;The Vice Chancellor and All Academics;The Country Representative, World Health Organization;The President of the World Health Summit;The International President World Health summit;Delegates from the M8 Alliance;Cabinet Ministers;Participating Ministers of Health;Members of Parliament;Ladies and Gentlemen, both physical and virtual.

I greet you all and congratulate you upon organizing and  hosting  this  World Health  Summit  Regional Meeting. I  also wish  to congratulate  the Makerere University Administration  and Staff for the work done to ensure  that  this  World  Health  Summit Regional  Meetingis  hosted,for  the  first  time,in Africa,particularly in Uganda.Congratulations.

I  wish  to  thank  the  leadership  and  scientists  of Makerere  University  for  quickly  mobilizing  human and  other  resources to  start  developing  a  Ugandan COVID-19  vaccine. We  have  a  long  history  and experience   in   dealing   with   such   major   disease outbreaks including Ebola. We know that the ultimate solution to COVID-19 lies in vaccinating all our people. The government,with the help of the African Union and other partners,will fast  track  the  acquisition  of  sufficient  dozes  of vaccines  to  cover  the  entire  population  alongside efforts to develop our own vaccine. We are continuing to talk with India, the USA for the Johnson-Johnson vaccine, China and Cuba.  The   importance   of   medical   research   cannot   be overemphasized.    Progress  in  medicine  depends largely  on  the  work  of  medical  research.  Research into   the   causes   and   treatments   of   illnesses   is perhaps  the  most  important  weapon  in  the  fight against disease. 

Research  into  traditional  medicine  is  particularly important  in  Africain  making  good  use  of  our naturally    and    richly    endowed    environment.  Countries  in  Africa,  Asia  and  Latin  America  use traditional medicine (TM) to help meet some of their primary  health  care  needs.  In  Africa,  up  to  80%  of the population uses traditional medicine for primary health  care.    The  age-old  cures  that  kept  our forefathers   disease-free   must   be   given   enough attention so that we improve on them and preserve their use. The  Government  remains  committed  to  funding research and innovations by our scientists especially those in the Universities. We have demonstrated this by earmarking UShs. 30billion every financial year to the  Makerere  University  Research  and  Innovations Fund (Mak-RIF). However,I challenge Makerere not to  only  publish,  but  to  translate  research  into productsthat spur our Industrial developmentand catalyze pharmaceutical industrialization to stop the massive  dependence  on  outside  pharmaceuticals.We want tangible results and our ordinary Ugandans have hope in our scientists to come up withsolutions for  different  ailments  like  cancer  and  many  other diseases.

As we usher in the 4th Industrial revolution where the physical,   biological   and   digital   technologies   are converging, we are seeing technologies like Artificial Intelligence   (AI),   Robotics,Biotechnologies,   etc. These technologies are efficient and can innovatively be used to address societal challenges. For example; scientists have used modern Biotechnology to come up with plant varieties that are resistant to drought, pests and disease and rich in nutrients through bio-fortification. Technology  and  Innovation  are  very  dynamic  and developing  countries  cannot  afford  to  lag  behind  or to  go  through  the whole  evolution  cycles  to  the  4thindustrial revolution technologies. This can only be possible  by  establishing  strategic  partnership  with the advanced countries like Japan. All the countries that have transformed their economies in record time have   done   so   through   deliberate   and   focused strategic  partnerships;  Japan  with  the  USA,  China and Korea have all leveraged strategic partnerships and  technology  transfer  in  the  fields  of  science, technology,innovationand research.

Finally,  I  wish  to  assure  everybody  that  we  are optimistic  and  we  shall  overcome  this  challenge  of Covid  19.  As  I  have  mentioned  several  times,  our scientists; doctors, researchers, innovators, etc., will move Africa to another level, scientifically.It  isnowmy  honor  to  declare  the  World  Health Summit  Regional  Meeting  Uganda  officially  open.  I wish you all  a good stay and fruitful proceedings. I strongly urge you to continueobserving the Covid -19 Standard Operating Procedures. STAY SAFE!