Healthcare leaders at BRICS event call for partnership in infrastructure development

New Delhi: Dr Sangita Reddy, Joint Managing Director, Apollo Hospitals & Chairperson, BRICS Women’s Business Alliance (India), while speaking at the BRICS Women’s Business Alliance session on ‘From Women Empowerment to Women-Led Development – New Ideas, New Approaches’, said that the role of business in bridging gender gap is extremely important.  The BRICS Women’s Business Alliance is set to play a very critical role in strengthening women empowerment.

Dr Reddy further stated that it is time to acknowledge the role of women in industries and businesses as women today play a very important role in the success of companies, which are closing the gender gap.

Ms Anna Nesterova, Chairperson of Board of Directors, Global Rus Trade (Russia), said, “Despite the decline in business activity, BRICS countries stand the best chance in forming leadership in post covid world. China & Russia have agreed to build a lunar space station. Russia has signed agreements with pharma companies in India for the Russian vaccine Sputnik and Brazil remains our leading trading partner in Latin America. Russia is happy to build a partnership with the BRICS women alliance platform, which bring together women entrepreneurs in our five nations. Based on the principles of equality and inclusivity, we would open and pursue equal-footed and flexible practices and initiatives for dialogue and cooperation between BRICS countries and the whole world.”

Ms Grazielle Parenti, Global VP-Corporate Affairs, Reputation and Sustainability, BRF (Brazil), said, “The economic relevance of the BRICS nation is extremely significant and so is the cooperation between BRICS countries for women diversity and inclusion. The ESG plan is important to achieve great diversity not only for women but also for society. Eliminating gender disparity is important for the decision-making environment in our countries. Companies should adopt diverse and responsive practices in favour of economic growth. ESG Agenda can further help explore possibilities and achieve greater diversity and prosperity not just for women but also for the society in general. Besides encouraging participation of more women in economic activities, we hope we can also inspire companies to adopt responsive practices in favour of diversity and economic growth.”

Ms Chetna Sinha, Founder and Chairperson, Maan Deshi Bank (India), said, “We need to collectively work on digital financial literacy as this will bridge the gap among rural women entrepreneurs as they can create jobs. We, as bankers, should provide incentives for women who wish to enter into businesses. We need to get more women investors in these women-led businesses. We also need to support women in businesses as their courage is their capital.”

Ms TIAN Xiyan, General Manager, Alibaba Local Services (China), said, “Alibaba local service and All-China Women Federation are working together to improve the economic inclusion of women entrepreneurs and help them with a platform to sell their products. In future, we will assist the BRICS nations women leaders with more advanced technology and digitization to help them achieve sustainable and global businesses.”

Ms Lebogang Zulu, CEO, AV Group of Companies (South Africa), said, “We want economic liberation in a true sense moving from women empowerment to women-led development. This will drastically change the political landscape. The South African government has driven women economic inclusion by the method of public procurement and set a target of ensuring that 40% of goods and services procured by a public entity are sourced from women-owned businesses. We believe in the ability of policymakers, corporate businesses and partner philanthropists to play a central and active role in transforming and achieving women economic liberation”.

Within one year of inception, the BRICS Women’s Business Alliance will play an important role in furthering women empowerment, especially through several on-ground initiatives. It will also provide a platform to showcase some of the successful programs and initiatives being undertaken in the BRICS countries towards women entrepreneurship and women development as the role of businesses in closing the gender gap is extremely important.

Re-imagining healthcare sector – Public Private Partnership for better health outcomes

Mr Pankaj Patel, Chairman, Zydus Cadila and Member, BRICS Business Council (India), said, “A collaboration of BRICS nations in the healthcare sector is essential as the pandemic has created newer challenges and highlighted weakness in our overall preparedness on healthcare. Supply issues need to be addressed in the long run as the world could not create capabilities to meet emergencies. Emergency use authorization needs to be urgently looked at as regulators need to address healthcare issues on an urgent basis.”

Ms Janete Vaz, Co-Founder and President, Sabin Group (Brazil), said, “We work in collaboration with government, local bodies and other organizations to achieve our healthcare goals. Brazil has the largest universal health system globally, started by the Ministry of Health in Brazil. These centres understand the basic healthcare needs of the people and help achieve improved healthcare facilities. Sharing and strengthening the public-private healthcare system is essential.”

Mr Anatoly Mosman, Director General, Velpharm, (Russia), said, “Development of new generation molecules, shorter medical and pharmaceutical research times are required. Joint public-private cooperation is also required to create synergies by combining the strengths of partners. Global integration across national governments, building a global ecosystem is vital for creation of a unified healthcare platform to handle situations like the current pandemic.”

Dr Devlina Chakravarty, Managing Director, Artemis Medicare Services Ltd. (India), said, “Partnership in infrastructure development, quick turnaround times in a cost-effective manner, building capacity in existing hospitals, integrating various IT infrastructure and digital platforms and collaboration between BRICS nations is need of the hour to address the healthcare system in the country and globally.”

Ms Xu Jingjing, Founder and Chairperson of Board, Meridian Medical Network Corp. (China), said, “Cloud-enabled healthcare system, family wellness care, AI and the unique healthcare cloud system are being used in their country to provide healthcare and wellness facilities.”

Dr Stavros Nicolaou, Group Senior Executive, Aspen Pharmacare (South Africa), said, “We ought to forge a strong public-private collaboration in our fight against global pandemic which is centred around saving lives and livelihoods.  Solidarity funds were set up in the country to provide healthcare facilities based on a strong governance and private and public decision-making structure. It has played an incredible role in assisting healthcare throughout the country.”