He said this was achieved within about three months of the novel coronavirus outbreak hitting the country.

"Now we have [health equipment] producers in every part of the production line, from supplying raw materials to manufacturing finished goods. The products also adhere to the international standards from the World Health Organization,” Mahendra said in a virtual discussion on Wednesday.

He added that the pandemic had disrupted global value chains for health equipment and PPE because most countries depended on a very few countries that produce them. Mahendra called it “an unacceptable risk” that resulted in a global shortage of PPE and medicine.

“Thanks to joint efforts between the government and businesspeople, we have managed to [build upstream and downstream industries] for health equipment.”

The deputy minister said he remained optimistic that the pandemic would also create new opportunities, even though COVID-19 had hit the country’s economy hard.

He said the country recorded in May its lowest non-oil-and-gas exports for the last 10 years.

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