Phnom Penh, August 29, 2019 –To promote the economic growth and social development with the goal of health for all in ASEAN, Samdech Akka Moha Sena Padei Techo Hun Sen, Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Cambodia, shared some recommendations to the 14th ASEAN Health Ministers Meeting and Related Meetings which kicked off officially this morning in Siem Reap province.
According to his speech read by Samdech Pichey Sena Tea Banh, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of National Defence who represented him at the opening ceremony, Samdech Techo Hun Sen encouraged the ASEAN Health Ministers to pay attention to six important points.
First, all ASEAN Member States shall jointly promote the implementation of any activities to harmonise the health sector in the ASEAN region by reducing the health service quality gap.
Second, ASEAN must come together to respond to public health disasters, especially the outbreak of some diseases in the region and the disasters caused by climate change.
Third, ASEAN should jointly reduce the gap in medical technology by helping to bridge the shortcomings, helping to build technical capacity, modern technology and human resources, especially to develop technical knowledge and skills in line with international norms, some advanced technology to provide the service to the people with high efficiency and reliability.
Fourth, ASEAN needs to engage with all stakeholders in the health sector to share information, knowledge, experiences, technologies and techniques to discover the methods and requirements needed to act in a timely manner to the ASEAN countries and within the ASEAN region.
Fifth, ASEAN must jointly fight against falsified and substandard medicines through international cooperation, the continuation of the legal framework, the enhancement of the capacity of regular technical monitoring staff, and the strengthening of good governance mechanisms.
Sixth, ASEAN shall join hands with development partners and the World Health Organisation to advance the implementation of existing regional and global mechanisms and develop new mechanisms or guidelines for harmonising health and technical and financial support.
Regarding the falsified and substandard medicines, Samdech Techo Hun Sen has initiated to propose this issue to the 13th Asia-Europe Summit next year hosted by Cambodia.
By Khan Sophirom
