APEC’s 12th High Level Meeting on Health and Economy convened to discuss a highlight of balancing health and economy

Deputy prime minister and public health minister Anutin Charnvirakul convenes APEC’s the 12^th High Level Meeting on Health and the Economy in August 25-26 under a highlight of balancing health and economy, which he said Thailand is ready to share experience in the COVID-19 pandemic control and presents cannabis for medical treatment to promote both health and economy.

Meanwhile, the meeting tomorrow will be dominated with the issue of health insurance investment for outbreaks response in the future and wrapped up with a joint statement to express the members’ commitment on empowering global health security.

August 25: Deputy prime minister and public health minister Anutin presided over the APEC’s 12 High Level Meeting on Health and the Economy, accompanied by 15 on-site members namely Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, Peru, Philippines, Singapore. Taiwan, Thailand, USA and Vietnam. And there are more five on-line members from China, Hong Kong, South Korea, New Zealand and Russia, including the executive director of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Rebecca Sta Maria and ASEAN’s secretary-general Dato Paduka Lim Jock Hoi.

Public health minister Anutin said that the meeting has underscored a theme of “Open to Partnership. Connect with the World. Balance Health and the Economy”, under a challenging issue of how to make a balance in health and economy.

He said that in the last decade, people faced several outbreaks in the region, but its economies impacts were much smaller than COVID. The lengthy lockdown during COVID has led some economies to collapse, while the too relax approach and negligence on health issues has also caused avoidable losses in some others.

COVID teaches people to take good balance between health and the economy. To save lives, he added, vaccines and medical countermeasures need to be distributed equally to everyone within and across economies; this confirms the fact that “No one is safe until everyone is safe.” And the Thai government has implemented cannabis for medical treatment that could boost people’s health and wealth.

After presiding over the meeting, Mr. Anutin and other five members shared experience and suggestions how to cope with other emerging diseases that might occur in the future by having lesson-learned from COVID-19 pandemic under a seminar of “Balancing Health and the Economy”. The penalists are deputy health minister from Indonesia, public health minister from Singapore, United States Department of Health and Human Services’s representative, ASEAN’s secretary-general  and APEC’s executive director.

Indonesia has shared its efforts to control COVID-19 by investing on public health system, adjusting financial system for health and technology and innovation application. However, it found difficulty in staff’s shortage in remote areas and declining number of vaccinated people.

Singapore has also shared its tough period on how to put a weight on economy or health, especially at the early phase of outbreak that the government had decided to lockdown the country, causing big economic impacts. Hence, it decided to provide COVID-19 vaccine to its people as much as possible to control the disease amidst people’s heavy concern on vaccine safety and efficiency.

USA said that it has put an importance on equal medical treatment access, health investment and human resources development for public health service, including a respose in people’s behaviors from mental health problem and drug use.

Meanwhile, ASEAN’s secretary-general Dato Paduka Lim Jock Hoi said that COVID-19 has sent immese impact on marginalized group such as woman, child and immigrant workers that found difficulty to access the medical health service.

He said that ASEAN needs to mitigate the outbreak impacts, strengthen cooperation on information and technology exchange to respond any emerging diseases. However, those are challenging factors for limited public health resources and financial budget, which required a close work with the Ministry of Finance.

The APEC Secretariat recommened that it should have trade facilitation and safe passage for mobilizing vaccine and drug among the members, which is very important to reduce the economic impact.

 ***************************** August, 25 2022