Vietnamese Health Minister Nguyen Thi Kim Tien at the 12th ASEAN Health Ministers’ Meeting. Source: VNA

The 12th ASEAN Health Ministers’ Meeting wrapped up in Hanoi on September 19, adopting several joint statements of the meeting and its related ones.

The joint statements were announced at an international press conference later the same day under the chair of ASEAN Secretary General Le Luong Minh and Vietnamese Health Minister Nguyen Thi Kim Tien.

Under the joint statement of the 12th ASEAN Health Ministers’ Meeting, ASEAN member countries committed to strengthening cooperation in a range of fields, including fostering healthy lifestyle, dealing with pressing risks, improving the healthcare system and ensuring food safety.

They agreed to intensify initial healthcare work towards the all-people health insurance coverage, and to work together to prevent and control non-contagious diseases and newly-emerging infectious ones, and set up a sustainable and effective health financing system.

The sixth ASEAN Health Ministers Plus Three (Japan, the Republic of Korea and China) issued a Joint Statement vowing to strengthen collaboration in the health sector.

Accordingly, they will focus on expanding health insurance coverage, initial health care, managing health calamities, coping with an aging population, responding to pandemics, containing diseases transmitted from animals to humans, and preventing HIV/AIDS, rabies and malaria.

Meanwhile, the Joint Statement of the fifth ASEAN Health Ministers Plus China affirmed the signatories’ pledge to join hands to increase the capacity of health workers, prevent such newly-emerging infectious diseases as Ebola, H7N9, H5N1 and MERS-CoV, and reduce tobacco use.

The 12th ASEAN Health Ministers’ Meeting and related meetings took place in Hanoi from September 15-19.

A Memorandum of Understanding on cooperation in health between ASEAN and the World Health Organisation was signed at the event.

Source: VNA

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