World Health Organization (WHO) Director General Dr Margaret Chan on Monday lauded Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s success in reaching the health services to the doorsteps of grassroots people.
“Bangladesh’s present achievements in health sector have set an example for many countries around the world,” she told Bangladesh Health and Family Welfare Minister Mohammed Nasim at a luncheon meeting hosted by WHO in honour of participants of the four-day 9th Global Conference on Health Promotion in the Chinese city of Shanghai, an official handout said.
The WHO Director General hoped Bangladesh will succeed in attaining the targets of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030.
Mohammed Nasim said the incumbent government has been working tirelessly to reach modern healthcare services to the doorsteps of common people by establishing specialized hospitals at big cities. The government has introduced over 13,000 community clinics at village level aiming to enhance basic health care at grassroots.
“The government is working to set up a ‘digital healthcare’ system availing the latest information and communication technology through ensuring transparency and accountability,” the health minister said.
He expressed his gratitude to WHO for its role to help Bangladesh ensure heath-services for people and requested Dr Margaret Chan to extend the organization’s cooperation further in future.
Later, the minister met with his Chinese counterpart Li Bin and sought the country’s cooperation for modernization and infrastructural development in Bangladesh’s health sector to make it more pro-people.
Terming China as a trusted partner of Bangladesh in its socioeconomic advancement, Nasim said Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit to Bangladesh added a new dimension to the bilateral relations between Bangladesh and China.
The Chinese health minister assured the Bangladesh minister of increasing cooperation between the two countries in the field of health, education, communication, information technology and energy sectors.
Earlier, Chinese Prime Minister Li Keqiang inaugurated the four-day conference in Shanghai while United Nations Director General Ban Ki-moon and WHO Director General Dr Margaret Chan addressed the inaugural session as special guests.
Over a thousand representatives, including ministers of around 200 countries, policymakers, officials of non-government organizations, are taking part in the four-day conference.
WHO and the Chinese government are jointly organizing the conference to frame a policy for ensuring standard of life of 7.4 billion people of the world to help achieve SGDs.
