Vietnam attends 16th ASEAN Health Ministers Meeting and related meetings

Minister Lan represents the only female ASEAN Minister of Health to attend the Conference. Together with the Health Ministers of ASEAN member states, Minister Dao Hong Lan attended and spoke at the meetings focusing on building ASEAN health priorities after 2025.  

These meetings saw Minister Lan put forward several important proposals, such as promoting the health policy framework and health management system, enhancing the resilience and preparedness of the health system to respond to future public health emergencies, building a sustainable financial mechanism for the health sector to meet the increasing demand for quality health services, and applying high technology and digital transformation in health to increase access to health services.

At the 16th ASEAN Health Ministers Meeting, the Minister delivered a keynote speech emphasizing strengthening the region's post-pandemic health system through increasing public health preparedness, improving access to essential health care services, investing in health infrastructure and technology, and boosting regional co-operation and solidarity.

At the 10th ASEAN+3 Health Ministers' Meeting on enhancing ASEAN health security through digital innovation for the purpose of cross-border health emergencies in the new post-pandemic context, the Vietnamese Health Minister proposed promoting co-operation opportunities to upgrade, integrate, and link information technology systems. This is along with making use of the application of artificial intelligence in disease prevention and management to better protect people's health and ensure health security.

At the second ASEAN- Republic of Korea (RoK) Health Ministers' Meeting on Digital Transformation in Healthcare, Minister Lan delivered a speech focusing on strengthening ties and co-ordination mechanisms between ASEAN member states and the RoK on digital healthcare, including supporting medical examination and treatment, online training, timely information sharing, and co-ordination in responding to epidemics.

At the ninth ASEAN-China Health Ministers' Meeting on strengthening the health system and access to health services, the Vietnamese health leader shared information on the current state of the nation’s health system and proposed ASEAN's direction to achieve relevant goals by developing the health system. Other efforts include outlining new directions such as transparency, accountability, resilience and sustainability, flexible adaptation, and efficiency to match the new situation.

Developing and innovating the health system must therefore aim for universal coverage, paying attention to all aspects of the population, focusing on scientific research, applying high technology in disease prevention, detection, diagnosis and treatment, research, and development of pharmaceuticals and medical equipment, Minister Lan said.

At the ASEAN-US Special Health Ministers' Meeting on improving health and optimizing welfare in the ASEAN Region, Minister Lan emphasized the strengthening of the social welfare system, including the following key aspects of comprehensive social welfare, sustainable funding, and community empowerment through social services. Indeed, integrating health and social services is an important strategy which can improve overall well-being and address the complex needs of individuals and communities.

According to the agenda, Minister Lan and her delegation attended the second ASEAN Health Finance Ministers Meeting to discuss co-ordination between the two sectors and the establishment of the ASEAN Health Finance Cooperation Working Group. At the end of the 16th ASEAN Health Ministers Meeting and related meetings, the leaders of the Health Ministries of ASEAN, ASEAN+3, the RoK, China, and the United States adopted the Joint Statements of the meetings.

Furthermore, Minister Lan met with Saia Ma'u Piukala, director of the World Health Organization (WHO) of the Western Pacific Region, to discuss increasing WHO support for ASEAN, including Vietnam.

The working trip also saw Minister Lan take part in a sideline bilateral meeting with Japanese Senior Vice Minister for Health, Labor and Welfare Hamachi Masakazu to bolster bilateral health co-operation and Japanese support for the ASEAN Centre for Public Health Emergencies and Emerging Diseases (ACPHEED).

At the meeting, the Vietnamese health official highly appreciated support offered by the Japanese Government for the Vietnamese health sector in recent times, such as the viral hepatitis prevention project, and the medical equipment upgrading project for K Hospital.