BEIRUT: Lebanon has signed a bilateral agreement with Iraq to increase the amount of locally manufactured medicines it exports to the country, Health Minister Jamil Jabak said Thursday.

The Iraqi market consumes Lebanese medicine, Jabak said following a meeting with the Lebanese president. As Iraqs population is estimated at some 40 million people, he said, this will be an incentive for Lebanese factories to strengthen their production.

According to a 2018 report from the state-run Investment Development Authority of Lebanon, Lebanon is currently a net importer of pharmaceutical products. In 2017 it imported medicines worth $1.3 billion. However, the report noted that at the time Lebanons medicinal exports were increasing at a faster pace than its imports.

Jabak is trying to boost this growth by increasing exports of generic medicines to Iraq, a move he said would be a considerable boost to the Lebanese economy.

Earlier this month, Jabak made an official visit to the country, meeting with his counterpart in the Iraqi Health Ministry and other senior government officials.

Iraqs hospitals are not of a good standard, Jabak told The Daily Star Thursday. According to Irfad, an Iraq-based research center, since the fall of Saddam Hussein as Iraqs leader in 2003, the Iraqi health care system is in great need of rebuilding, and more than 96 percent of Iraqis remain without health insurance.

Furthermore, many seek treatment in Lebanon.

In addition to boosting medicinal exports, the two countries Health ministries have agreed to facilitate Iraqis ability to receive treatment in Lebanese hospitals. Jabak said this would put Lebanon back on the Arab medical map.

We will allow Iraqis, who have been subject to exploitation and mistreatment, to receive treatment and care under the umbrella of the Lebanese Health Ministry, he said.

The minister told The Daily Star that Iraqis traveling to Lebanon for health care had in the past been charged exorbitant prices compared with Lebanese patients.

We have examples where Iraqis have paid $15,000 for a procedure that would cost a Lebanese person $3,000 or $4,000, he said.

Additionally, he said, because formal channels had not been established for directing Iraqis seeking medical care upon their arrival in Lebanon, many were taken in taxis to places we dont know about, he said.

Now the ministry has set up an office at Beiruts airport to welcome medical tourists and point them to the relevant hospital or treatment center.

The minister expressed his concerns over the Health Ministrys allocation in the 2019 state budget. This is not enough to cover the health needs of all Lebanese. ... I have proposed a funding increase for the next budget, he said.

While the 2019 budget has been passed, the president has not yet signed and approved it, so the final figures have not yet been released.

However, in the version of the document approved by Cabinet, the Health Ministry was set to receive about LL739 billion ($488 million), up from around LL720 billion in 2018.

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