The event held on March 28 was attended by representatives of the World Health Organization, the Southeast Asia Tobacco Control Alliance, the Health Ministry and people-elected deputies from the central region.

The participants discussed a series of issues, including the role of the deputies in controlling tobacco, Thailand’s anti-smoking experience, and some countries’ laws on the prevention of tobacco’s harmful effects. They also reviewed the implementation of the National Assembly resolution on diversifying and improving medical care services.

Urgent actions were proposed at the conference, such as completing legal policies to step up the involvement of non-state sectors in health care, raising people’s awareness about health issues, restructuring the public health system, strengthening the effectiveness of state management of health care and medicine prices, and offering better incentives to medical workers.