Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly Monday met with Bahaa El-Din Zidan, the Chairperson of the Egyptian Unified Procurement Authority (UPA), to review and follow up on some of the Authority's projects. Zidan reported that, as part of Egypt's vision to increase its exports to African markets and enhance its trade relations with African countries, the UPA initiated a contract to supply Egyptian pharmaceutical products to Zambia, worth $24m. The first shipment has been delivered, and the UPA is currently coordinating with the manufacturers to prepare the second shipment. Zidan also updated the Prime Minister on the progress of the project to establish six strategic drug stores across the country, which are designed and specified according to the actual needs and demands of the market. He said that the number of drug types and the capacity of each store have been increased and that the drug tracking system has been activated to monitor the inventory. He added that the capacity of the Cairo store has been expanded and that additional spaces have been added to the stores in Alexandria, Minya, Mansoura, and Qena, to accommodate more trading units. He also said that the necessary measures have been taken to ensure that the operating company selects the best human resources and follows up on the new requirements for operation. He explained that the strategic drug stores and their operating system are designed to achieve greater flexibility and efficiency in distributing drugs and to obtain international accreditation certificates to ensure the quality of storage standards. He also said that the drug tracking system in the strategic stores allows for better oversight of the stock. The meeting also discussed the joint action plan between the UPA and the Ministry of Health and Population to automate warehouse movements, which consists of two phases over six months. The first phase involves automating the system's cycles and warehouse procedures to control inventory, while the second phase involves implementing electronic signature and sealing software and integrating it into the system through a selected company, based on what was studied and agreed upon in the first phase.
