《TAIPEI TIMES》 Students to attend WHA side events

REPRESENTATION: The group is to host a Global Health Diplomacy Summit on the sidelines of the assembly to exchange medical knowledge with global health leaders

By Liu Tzu-hsuan / Staff reporter

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A delegation of Taiwanese medical, pharmacy and public health students would attend side events at the World Health Assembly （WHA） in Geneva, Switzerland, later this month, the group said yesterday.

Twenty undergraduate and graduate students have formed a pharmaceutical and public health action group to conduct Taiwan Global Health Diplomacy, the group told a news conference.

The group was formed with the support of the Federation of Public Health Student Associations in Taiwan and the Pharmaceutical Students’ Association of Taiwan.

Working with Taipei City Hospital’s Zhongxing branch doctor Chiang Kuan-yu （姜冠宇）, the group would hold the first Global Health Diplomacy Summit, an event approved by the Global Health Council, on Saturday next week as a side event of the WHA, it said.

The summit is to invite public health experts from Canada, the UK and the US to discuss post-COVID-19 pandemic trends in medicine and medical diplomacy, and how youth leaders can cultivate competence in global health, it said.

The event, which is to be broadcast live, also includes a roundtable forum for Taiwanese students to interact with experts in the field, and to share Taiwan’s strengths in public health, medicine and health policies, it said.

The group plans to attend more than 30 side meetings of the 76th WHA from Friday next week to May 26, it said.

A white paper would be compiled by the group to provide important information from the meetings to agencies back home, it said.

Taiwan was not invited to this year’s WHA due to Chinese pressure, but civil and student groups would show the nation’s strength in public health and healthcare, New Power Party Legislator Claire Wang （王婉諭） said.

In related news, visiting Paraguayan Minister of Public Health and Social Welfare Julio Borba reiterated Paraguay’s support for Taiwan’s participation in the WHO yesterday during a meeting with Minister of Foreign Affairs Joseph Wu （吳釗燮）.

Borba thanked Taiwan for providing his country with medical supplies during the pandemic, the ministry said in a statement.

The Health Information Management Efficiency Enhancement Project, a collaboration between Taiwan and Paraguay, helps Paraguay establish and introduce the health system to 191 public medical institutions across the country, significantly improving healthcare efficiency, he said.

He learned about Taiwan’s medical and health achievements during the trip, and would make more convincing arguments in international forums to support Taiwan’s participation in the WHO, he said.

Separately, more than 20 members of the Global Federation of Chinese Business Women called on US lawmakers to support Taiwan’s participation in the WHO and the WHA.

“Health has absolutely nothing to do with political issues, so the world has no reason to exclude Taiwan from the WHO,” federation chairwoman Chuang Chu-wei （莊住維） told reporters.

Taiwan was invited to participate in the WHA, the decisionmaking body of the WHO, from 2009 to 2016, but has not been invited since due to objections from China.

新聞來源：TAIPEI TIMES