Dr. Kidong Park, outgoing Representative of the World Health Organisation (WHO) in Vietnam, has been honored with the insignia “For the Health of the People” by the Vietnamese Ministry of Health, as Vietnam Plus reported.

Minister of Health Nguyen Thanh Long handed over the reward to the WHO representative at a ceremony in Hanoi on April 29.

Minister of Health Nguyen Thanh Long (L) hands over insignia “For the Health of the People” to Dr Kidong Park, outgoing Representative of the World Health Organisation in Vietnam. (Photo: VNA)

Long appreciated the support of Dr. Park and the WHO in terms of technical expertise, especially in the context of difficult medical conditions in Vietnam.

WHO and Dr. Park personally "always stood shoulder to shoulder" with the Ministry of Health (MoH) in the COVID-19 prevention and combat over the past time, especially helping Vietnam access COVID-19 vaccine sources to innoculate local residents, he said.

With the help of Dr. Park and colleagues, the MoH has developed some policies and laws relating to public health and health care for Vietnamese people. Several laws have been passed by the National Assembly, Long said.

Dr. Park also continuously supported the building of capacity of the health system, especially in remote and isolated areas, as well as the training and development of medical human resources in the country, he said.

The Vietnamese official said he hopes that Dr. Park will continue to help the Vietnamese health sector in the new position.

For his part, as nhandan reported, Dr. Park expressed his honor to receive the noble reward of the health sector, affirming that he will keep on accompanying and supporting the health sector in particular and Vietnam in general in areas he is in charge of so that Vietnam soon achieves the goal of universal health coverage.

Previously, Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam on April 27 hosted a reception for Dr Kidong Park, during which he spoke highly of Park’s contributions to the growth in partnership between Vietnam and WHO.

Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam (R) receives Dr Kidong Park, Representative of the World Health Organisation (WHO) in Vietnam (Source: baochinhphu.vn)

According to Vietnamnet, Sharing his memorable time in Vietnam when the country struggled against the COVID-19 pandemic, Park highly valued Vietnam’s efforts to learn and apply international experience and roll out creative prevention and control measures.

For his part, Dam lauded the support from WHO and Park in particular to Vietnam in the pandemic fight as well as in all medical areas over the past more than 40 years.

Vietnam is among the five countries newly selected to receive mRNA vaccine technology transfer from a global biomanufacturing training hub established by the World Health Organisation (WHO) in South Africa.

Vietnam, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Pakistan and Serbia will receive support from the global mRNA hub in South Africa, WHO said in a press conference on February 23. Those countries were vetted by a group of experts and proved that they had the capacity to absorb the technology and, with targeted training, move to production stage relatively quickly.

Dr Kidong Park, WHO Representative in Vietnam (Photo: VNA)

“Although Vietnam is a developing country, we have had a lot of experience in vaccine development over the past decades,” said Nguyen Thanh Long, Vietnamese Minister of Health in a virtual address.

“Our National Regulatory Authority (NRA) has also been recognized by WHO. We believe that in participating in this initiative, Vietnam will be able to produce the mRNA vaccine in large scale, not only for domestic consumption but also for other countries in the region and the world, contributing to reducing inequalities in access to vaccines,” Long said.

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