The Secretary of Economy opens the International Forum "More and Better Health-Mexico 2030"

Before Entrepreneurs of the pharmaceutical industry, medical associations, laboratories, and business leaders, the Secretary of Economy, Ildefonso Guajardo Villarreal, opened the International Forum "More and Better Health-Mexico 2030".

The Secretary congratulated the Mexican Foundation for Health (FUNSALUD, by its initials in Spanish) for the work that has served for three decades as one of the most recognized research centers in Mexico and worldwide; evidence of this is the recognition that the University of Pennsylvania extended them, who's ranked them as the twelfth "think tank" most important in the health sector, globally, during 2014.

The Secretary Guajardo affirmed that the country needs a healthy workforce, to generate productivity in order to have a more competitive country. He also noted that the health sector is also attractive as a source of business, and that Mexico "is now the first offering country of inputs of medical devices to the United States and the tenth exporter worldwide, which creates jobs; if we analyze how many Mexicans are working in the sector together with the pharmaceutical industry, we found that there is more than 170,000 Mexicans directly", he said.

He also noted that "within this strategy of analysis and definition of a public policy in conjunction with sectors of the health sector, we also arrived at the fundamental point that has to do with protecting the innovation and encouraging the entrepreneurship".

Finally, regarding the opportunities that the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP) will bring to the health sector, the Secretary Guajardo said that during the TPP negotiations, Mexico promoted the right conditions to attract foreign investment in innovative medicines, while it was guaranteed that the general public has a timely access to generic medicines.

The Forum "More and Better Health-Mexico 2030" is coordinated by the COPARMEX and FUNSALUD.

The aim of the event is to create a shared vision of the health system that must be built for Mexico in 2030. The Forum is aimed at officials and managers of public institutions at the federal, state and municipal levels, as well as companies and associations of the civil society related to attention, funding, regulation, education and procurements of the health sector.