Asia Pacific Development Summit 2012
CCPHI Executive Director, Kemal Soeriawidjaja was one of the panelists at the Asia Pacific Development Summit held on September 3-5, 2012 in Jakarta. The theme of the summit was Public-Private Partnerships to Close Regional Health Millennium Development Goal (MDG) Gaps. The Summit promoted partnerships between the public and private sectors to improve public health, in particular maternal and child health, to accelerate progress towards achieving the MDGs by 2015. Topics covered in this year's Summit included integrated health approaches in the Asia-Pacific countries, collaborative approaches between the public and private sectors in dealing with infectious diseases, and equal access to health services. Kemal highlighted the need to overcome the lack of trust, knowledge, and skills in all sectors that are obstacles to building successful partnerships involving companies and communities.
The Indonesian Health Ministry played a leading role in organizing the Summit, in cooperation with the Office of Special Envoy on MDGs to the President of the Republic of Indonesia, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the ASEAN Foundation. Representatives of public and private sectors from six ASEAN member countries - Cambodia, Indonesia, Myanmar, Thailand, the Philippines, and Vietnam - and several countries outside the region, including China, India, and the United States attended the Summit.
Margaret Chan, Director General World Health Organization (WHO), Surin Pitsuwan, ASEAN Secretary-General, Armida Alisjahbana, Head of the Indonesian National Planning Agency, and Ali Ghufron Mukti, Indonesia's Health Vice Minister were among the speakers.