The Ukrainian delegation headed by Deputy Prime Minister, Minister for the Reintegration of the Temporarily Occupied Territories of Ukraine Oleksiy Reznikov paid an official visit to the United Arab Emirates (UAE), during which a range of meetings were held regarding the future cooperation of both states.

According to the ministry's press service, the delegation included Head of the President's Office of Ukraine Andriy Yermak; Deputy Head of the President's Office Ihor Zhovkva and Deputy Health Minister, Chief State Sanitary Doctor of Ukraine Viktor Liashko.

It is noted that among others, the members of the delegation held a separate meeting with CEO of G42 Healthcare Ashish Koshy and his team.

"The priority for Ukraine is the issue of vaccine supplies, because in order to fulfill the presidential decree on the vaccination of the majority of the adult population of Ukraine by the end of 2021, it is necessary to provide free access to the vaccine for all Ukrainians over 18 years old. The G42 company, along with the Sinopharm Chinese vaccine manufacturer, is involved in the production of an inactivated vaccine against COVID-19 and is already producing this vaccine called Hayat-Vax COVID-19 in the UAE," the ministry said.

They discussed the possibility of supplying at least 5 million doses of vaccine to Ukraine at the meeting.

"Today the plant in the UAE has a production capacity of about 2 million doses per month. In order to increase capacity, it is planned to construct a new plant, which will be operational by the end of 2021, and due to the phased development, it will reach a capacity of 200 million doses per year on three filling lines and five automated packaging lines. By comparison, Sinopharm itself has delivered 100 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine worldwide since its launch last autumn," the Reintegration Ministry said.

According to it, chief state sanitary doctor of Ukraine suggested that the G42 leadership consider the possibility of localizing the production of a vaccine against COVID-19 in Ukraine. We agreed to work out this issue in the near future and make a decision by the end of May 2021.

It is noted that Ukraine is interested in the UAE's experience in vaccination and expanded cooperation in the medicine industry.

"During this meeting, the key points of cooperation in the development of the Ukrainian healthcare system, in terms of improving e-health and concession issues in the medical sector, were discussed. G42 Healthcare is ready to consider the possibility of managing selected Ukrainian hospitals and ensure the appropriate level of investment and supply of the latest medical equipment," the ministry said.

The ministry said that CEO Koshy responded to the proposal of Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine, Minister for the Reintegration of the Temporarily Occupied Territories of Ukraine Reznikov and expressed his readiness to work out the possibility of investment construction of modern analogues of our regional hospitals on the territory of Donetsk and Luhansk regions.

"In addition, a meeting was held with the UAE Minister of Food Security Mariam Al Mheiri, who is responsible from the Arab side for the Joint Cooperation Council, which was created after the visit of the President of Ukraine to the UAE. Mariam Al Mheiri is coordinating contacts and processing project concepts between the two countries that have set a goal to increase trade turnover by ten times within five years. During the meeting, the sides discussed current projects, and also agreed on the minister's visit to Ukraine in June-July this year," the press service said.

It is noted that they also talked about the progress on the previously reached agreements on direct investments, which may be of interest to UAE sovereign funds in Ukraine.

In particular, the Mubadala Sovereign Fund is now considering for further investments Ukrainian companies that are on the list for privatization.