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| Deputy Prime Minister Tran Hong Ha receives Ms. Angela Pratt, Head of the World Health Organization's representative office in Vietnam. (Source: VNA) |
On the afternoon of July 18, Deputy Prime Minister Tran Hong Ha received Ms. Angela Pratt, Head of the World Health Organization (WHO) Representative Office in Vietnam.
Congratulating Ms. Angela Pratt on her new term in Vietnam, the Deputy Prime Minister highly appreciated the coordinating role of the WHO in the context of the world facing many challenging issues related to the pandemic. The WHO's support contributed to Vietnam's success in the fight against Covid-19 and helped it become one of the first countries to reopen after the pandemic.
According to the Deputy Prime Minister, climate change and epidemics like Covid-19 are among the measures of the sustainability of the current development model in the world. This shows the urgent need to focus resources on responding to future sustainability challenges.
Lessons learned from the fight against Covid-19 show that the world cannot successfully combat the pandemic if there is still a country that has not controlled the outbreak, and vaccines are the key weapon in this fight. Therefore, all countries need to share vaccine resources equitably to successfully combat the pandemic.
The Deputy Prime Minister stated that, following the pandemic, Vietnam continues to proactively improve its healthcare system to be able to respond to potential future outbreaks of infectious diseases. Vietnam hopes that the WHO will support its response to new health challenges, especially in enhancing the capacity of the grassroots healthcare system; and at the same time, gradually address the fundamental shortcomings and deficiencies in health insurance policies and public health care with the leading role of the State and the active participation of businesses.
The Deputy Prime Minister requested that the WHO continue to provide active support to Vietnam in accessing quality and reasonably priced medical products, medicines, biological products, and vaccines, especially those vaccines that are still lacking in the expanded immunization program.
Deputy Prime Minister Tran Hong Ha discussed with Ms. Angela Pratt several specific issues, including: solutions to address diseases arising from environmental and water pollution; prevention and control of the harmful effects of tobacco; resolving obstacles in accessing and transferring technology for vaccine production, raw materials and finished drugs, drug quality control, and centralized drug procurement…
Thanking the Deputy Prime Minister for taking the time to meet, Ms. Angela Pratt affirmed that the WHO and the Vietnamese Government have had a close and effective cooperative relationship for a long time. This is an important foundation for both sides to continue addressing the current challenges in the health sector.
In the coming period, WHO will continue to work closely with the Ministry of Health to strengthen access to vaccines under the expanded immunization program.
The WHO representative highly appreciated and thanked Vietnam for its active participation in future health care programs and plans; and for its commitment to achieving goals related to climate change response.
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