At the opening session of the Horasis Asia Virtual Meeting 2020, Lopez said the country has begun shifting its economic priorities towards the healthcare sector after the pandemic forced some of the country's big businesses to pivot their operations to products and services urgently needed during the health crisis.
The Philippines entered the pandemic with zero production capacity for coverall personal protective equipment, and very limited capacity to produce medical masks, Lopez said. "Even medical-grade masks. We only had one manufacturer before, an exporter, which we did not impose export restrictions on, we allowed them to export despite the need for medical-grade mask. But now there are two million and we're asking other companies to open and operate medical-grade masks," Lopez said.