External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on Tuesday said that ensuring access to affordable and quality medicines and treatment was an important area of cooperation between India and African countries.She was speaking at the ministerial meeting of the Third India-Africa Forum Summit here.We recognise the value of training of doctors and healthcare personnel, including through tele-medicine, the use of affordable generic medicines, promoting the use of traditional medicines and their regulatory procedures," she said.
She said that India has been an active participant of the international efforts to meet the challenges posed by pandemics, including Ebola and HIV/AIDS in Africa, over the last several years."The Pan African e-Network project links a large number of super-speciality hospitals in both India and Africa," she said, adding that agriculture, education and skills development, energy and infrastructure, science and technology were other areas of cooperation.She said both India and Africa were committed to work together to promote gender equality and empowerment of women."Our flagship programme 'Beti Bachao Beti Padhao' is a nation-wide campaign to increase awareness on celebrating the girl child and enabling her education. This is another area where we can collaborate further," she added.