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The president also called for collaboration to ensure the resilience of existing supply chains for essential products like food.
On April 22, 2020, President Cyril Ramaphosa organized a virtual meeting of the AU Office of Heads of State and Government with African business leaders. Image: @ AUChair2020 / Twitter.
JOHANNESBURG – President Cyril Ramaphosa has asked business leaders on the continent to consider shifting the manufacturing infrastructure to the production of essential medical products.
The President also called for collaboration to ensure the resilience of existing supply chains for essential products like food and pharmaceuticals.
Ramaphosa organized a virtual meeting with business captains in his capacity as president of the African Union (AU) on Wednesday. He and his counterparts from seven countries met online with business leaders.
# COVID-19 The | PRESIDENT RAMAPHOSA COMMITS AFRICAN BUSINESS LEADERS
President @CyrilRamaphosa today chaired a virtual meeting of business leaders on the continent to discuss the continental impact of the COVID -19 pandemic and the response to this challenge.
# AfricaResponds pic.twitter.com/jy32I3C92D– AUChair2020 (@ AUChair2020) April 22, 2020
Ramaphosa said that with porous borders and active cross-border communities, an outbreak in one country could easily spread to another, and that the continent contained the COVID-9 pandemic or did not do so at all.
He said that while the focus should be on containing the health crisis, it would quickly give way to a severe economic crisis and a deep global recession that would likely follow the pandemic would hit Africa harder.
Ramaphosa warned that export orders in markets such as Asia and Europe would decline rapidly, while key commodity prices would face worse pressures than the 2008 global financial crisis.
In addition to this, the AU promised $ 4.5 million to increase the capacity of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Africa and agreed to establish an African Fund COVID-19, in which the member states of the office contributed $ 12.5 millions as initial financing.
Ramaphosa called on companies to provide cooperation similar to that required by the health crisis to the economic crisis.
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