Your Excellency, Anutin Charnvirakul, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Health, Thailand; Dr Tedros, Director-General, WHO; Hon’ble Ministers of Health from the countries of the WHO South-East Asia Region; colleagues from the international community and from across WHO; distinguished delegates, ladies and gentlemen,
It is a pleasure to add my warm welcome to this Seventy-third session of the Regional Committee for the WHO South-East Asia Region, the first-ever Regional Committee to be held online.
My sincere gratitude to our hosts, the Royal Thai Government, for their commitment and drive to make this happen.
For more than nine months now WHO and its Member States in the Region have acted with speed, scale and solidarity to respond to the COVID-19 crisis – a crisis that has affected all of humanity, and which has impacted social and economic life like no event in living memory.
The hard work and determination that Your Excellencies have demonstrated has saved countless lives. Your ongoing commitment will save many more.
Throughout the response and into the recovery and beyond, you can be certain of WHO’s unrelenting support.
As a Region we must continue to draw on the solidarity and cooperation that has defined our work for many years now, and which has been central to the response thus far.
Chair, Excellencies,
Our hosts, Thailand, are a regional and global leader in health security.
Thailand was the first country in the world outside of China to detect and report a case of COVID-19, on the 13th of January.
Thailand is proof that a new normal in which low or no transmission occurs can be achieved using basic public health measures.
Thailand has shown the benefits of strong health service delivery at all levels, which has been achieved through its ongoing pursuit of universal health coverage – an observation well noted by the WHO-supported COVID-19 Health System Response Monitor.
Thailand’s sustained efforts to strengthen health security and achieve compliance with the International Health Regulations have demonstrated results.
As expressed in last year’s Delhi Declaration on Emergency Preparedness, no country is safe until we are all safe.
Investing in public health not only achieves better health outcomes, but also promotes sustainable development and a more equitable and just society.
At 15% of public expenditure, Thailand’s health spending is above the global average. Our congratulations to the Thai leadership for this far-reaching decision.
Across the Region, recent increases in health spending have facilitated a range of public health achievements and strengthened health systems coverage and resilience.
Throughout the response and into the recovery and beyond, we must secure the allocations required to stay on course and achieve our “Sustain. Accelerate. Innovate” vision, contribute to WHO’s “triple billion” targets and advance progress towards Sustainable Development Goal 3.
Chair, Excellencies,
History is ours to make, and the future is ours to define.
Together let us grasp this opportunity.
Thank you.