PM attends ASEAN Health Ministers’ Meeting

September 19, 2014 | 09:55

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PM Nguyen Tan Dung on September 18 attended the 12th ASEAN Health Ministers’ Meeting, themed “Better health care for the ASEAN Community after 2015".

Photo: VGP/Nhat Bac

The event, held for the first time in Viet Nam, drew the attendance of nearly 200 international delegates from the 10 ASEAN nations and its partners including China, the Republic of Korea, and Japan, together with the ASEAN Secretary-General and representatives of international organizations.

Speaking at the event, PM Dung said that after 30 years of renovation, Viet Nam has gained great achievements and completed the United Nations’ Millennium Development Goals on poverty, malnutrition, child mortality reduction and maternal improvement.

Nearly three quarters of the total Vietnamese have joined the health insurance program, the PM stressed.

He also thanked the assistance of the international community for Viet Nam, expecting to receive more supports from international organizations, other ASEAN nations and countries across the world.

Accordingly, it is incumbent upon ASEAN to design a healthcare network to help people, especially those living in remote, mountainous and vulnerable areas, gain easy access to better medical services, he stressed.

Closer cooperation among countries is needed to combat infectious diseases, such as Ebola, H7N9, and Mec-CoVi, dengue fever, hand-foot-mouth disease, malaria, and rabies.

He also stressed the importance of the meeting, which aims to propose priorities and effective cooperative mechanisms to successfully launch the goal of a better health care for the ASEAN Community after 2015.

VGP

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