His Excellency the Assistant Minister of Finance for Macro-Fiscal Policies and International Affairs, Abdulmuhsen Alkhalaf, met with the Director-General of the World Health Organization, Dr. Tedros Ghebreyesus, today, Wednesday, November 23, 2022, in Riyadh, with the participation of a number of officials from the Ministries of Finance and Health and the World Health Organization.

The meeting discussed ways to enhance cooperation between the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the World Health Organization including through the G20, and enhance global dialogue and cooperation on issues related to public health in general, and topics related to pandemic prevention, preparedness and response in particular.

The meeting reviewed the recent progress made by G20 members, including the establishment of a Financial Intermediary Fund for pandemic prevention and preparedness (the Pandemic Fund) and the role of the World Health Organization in the fund.

It is noteworthy that the Kingdom has many initiatives in support of international efforts in the health security, including its initiative to enhance access to COVID-19 tools launched under its G20 Presidency in 2020, in addition to its recent support of about $50 million to the Pandemic Fund during the recent G20 summit in Bali, Indonesia.This initiative comes within the outputs of the Kingdom's presidency of the G20 in 2020, as it proposed at the time to address gaps in the global health system to enhance preparedness and response measures to global pandemics.​

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