Mexico Opens 1st Trade Office in Africa

laht.com


RABAT – Mexico opened a trade office on Thursday in Casablanca that is its first in Africa, saying it will serve as a bridge for trade and investment opportunities on that continent.

The director-general of trade and investment promotion agency ProMexico, Francisco Gonzalez; and Mexico’s deputy foreign secretary, Carlos de Icaza, were on hand for the ceremony, Mexican diplomatic officials told Efe.

Morocco was represented by its deputy foreign secretary, Mbarka Bouaida; and the secretary-general of the Foreign Trade Ministry, Mohammed Benayad.

Mexico will share the new office, located in Kenzi Tower, with Peru, Chile and Colombia.

Morocco was chosen because of its political stability, its sustained development and its strategic location as a bridge to Europe, Mexico’s ambassador to that North African country, Andres Ordoñez, said.

Mexico also is looking to expand its diplomatic ties with Africa and the Arab world with its plans to open embassies in Angola, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Jordan and Kuwait in the near future.

In addition to promoting expanded trade, the Casablanca office also could help Mexican companies – particularly in construction and agroindustry – establish operations in Morocco, a low-cost gateway to Europe, Ordoñez said.

In that regard, a Mexican trade delegation representing those two sectors is currently visiting Morocco and will meet with business leaders and officials in the foreign trade and investment area.

The delegation will include representatives of four leading Mexican companies: Cemex and Tamsa (construction) and Bimbo and Gruma (food-processing), who will get a first-hand look at the opportunities Morocco offers.

Mexico Joins Efforts to Combat African Ebola Outbreak

IANS
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October 27, 2014

The Foreign Affairs Ministry said Mexico will make a financial contribution toward equipping the contingent of doctors and healthcare workers that Cuba has sent to West Africa to fight the spread of the Ebola virus.

Mexico City, Mexico- Mexico is joining the international efforts to combat the outbreak of deadly Ebola virus in West Africa, the Foreign Affairs Ministry said on Friday.

In a statement, the ministry said Mexico will make a financial contribution toward equipping the contingent of doctors and healthcare workers that Cuba has sent to the African region to fight the spread of the disease.

"Aware that diseases know no boundaries and must be tackled in a coordinated fashion at the international level, the governments of Cuba and Mexico have decided to join forces to help fight the Ebola epidemic," the ministry said.

"Cuba has pledged a sizable contingent of healthcare professionals," the ministry said, "and Mexico, in turn, will participate with a financial contribution to the World Health Organization (WHO) to equip these brigades with specialized equipment."

The WHO will be in charge of ensuring the needed equipment "meets the highest technical standards, given the characteristics of the Ebola virus," the ministry added.

The Ebola outbreak has so far claimed 4,877 lives, more than half of them in Liberia. Sierra Leone and Guinea are also hard hit by the Ebola outbreak, according to the latest report released by the WHO.

Original Story

Mexico is ready to face Ebola

thenews.com.mx

Wednesday, 22 October 2014 01:10

Mexico is ready to face Ebola

WHO works to increase means of prevention

THE NEWS

Mexico’s Pan American Health Organization (OMS) and World Health Organization (WHO) Representative Maureen Birmingham said that there is a very low probability that Ebola will come to Mexico, but sanitation authorities are prepared and protocols are in place that conform to international standards.

In an interview after participating in the release of Americas First Report on Suicide Prevention from the WHO, Birmingham said that Mexico has the infrastructure and ability to comply with basic international sanitation rules.

The country has tools in place to detect any probable case, she said.

“Mexico has a very robust and vigilant system, a top laboratory and the training to treat Ebola,” said the representative.

“Now special training has been delivered to a medical group that has been assigned to treat any case, should a suspected infection arrive. The hospital where a patient would be isolated has already been assigned, so Mexico is taking every necessary step to prepare and basic training has been conducted. Mexico has also followed recommendations to have drills and simulations,” said Birmingham.

If a case of Ebola were to arrive in Mexico the risk of transmission is very low because the country is ready to treat the disease, she said.

One of the current priorities of the WHO is to contain the outbreak in the countries struggling to handle the majority of the cases: Liberia, New Guinea and Sierra Leone, said the representative.

The hardest-hit countries need more beds and medical equipment to treat the infected patients and better tools for containment.

The WHO wants to find a solution without closing international borders as a means of prevention, said Birmingham.

“There is no need to seal the borders,” she said. “We don’t recommend sealing borders because we know from the evidence that it’s not a very effective measure. It only serves to break the economy of the country and it is not recognized as an effective tool.”

Although no cases of Ebola have been registered in Mexico, two cases have caused panic in Dallas, Texas, just north of Mexico’s border. The virus has spread outside of West Africa through healthcare workers who treated victims within the hot zone.

After demands from concerned citizens to stop air travel to and from Liberia, New Guinea and Sierra Leone, the U.S. government announced on Tuesday that it has implemented more strict security efforts to screen for passengers entering the country that may carry the deadly virus.

Groups of people in the U.S. and Spain continue to be monitored and quarantined in an effort to prevent further spread of Ebola.

On Friday, the WHO released a report that said of the 9,191 total Ebola cases, 4,546 people have resulted in death.