Iran’s Health Minister Hassan Hashemi held talks with the chairman of Japan’s Sasakawa Peace Foundation at the Ministry of Health in Tehran on Monday evening.
During the meeting, Hashemi hailed the role of NGOs in Iran which, free of any political or religious leanings, are making tremendous efforts to provide humanitarian medical assistance to the people in need across the country.
He maintained that 20,000 healthcare centers and 2,500 comprehensive centers for health services are active in Iran, adding “all Iranians are covered by primary health services, while 900 hospitals are active in the field of treatment and over 96 per cent of Iran’s pharmaceuticals are produced inside the country.”
Hashemi went on to add, “for nearly 20 years, Iran has been providing specialized and ultra-specialized medical services to patients. In addition to having removed the need for sending patients abroad for getting treatment, we have also managed to provide medical services to foreign patients from Azerbaijan, Iraq and Kuwait.”
“If the Japanese side is interested in cooperating with Iran in a particular illness or age group, we are ready to discuss deals and would like to have joint cooperation for establishing medical centers in border areas with neighboring countries such as Afghanistan and Iraq,” he said.
Hashemi further added that while France is currently Iran’s most important pharmaceutical partner, the Islamic Republic will also welcome cooperation with Japan in this area.
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