（photo provided by the host）

The Global Health Forum (GHF) of Boao Forum for Asia (BFA) opened on June 11 in the coastal city Qingdao, east China's Shandong Province. H.E. Dr. Margaret Chan, President of BFA Global Health Forum delivered a speech at the opening ceremony of GHF.

The full text of the speech is as follows:

Remarks by H.E. Dr. Margaret Chan, President of BFA Global Health Forum, At the Opening Ceremony of GHF On the morning of 11 June 2019

Dear Vice Premier Sun Chunlan,

Distinguished Guests, Friends,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Thank you for President Xi Jinping's congratulatory letter and Vice Premier Sun Chunlan's keynote speech. As President of BFA Global Health Forum, I feel it a great honour to welcoming you all to this event.

Health is borderless. Health contributes to and benefits from the safety, development, and wellbeing of each and every individual, family, community, region, and country. This accounts for WHO’s growing commitment to“universal health coverage”, and this is also why the UN identifies“ensuring healthy lives and promoting well-being for all at all ages” as one of its SDGs.

Health has long been regarded as one of the basic rights of every individual.“Health for all” doesn’t only express the shared wishes of all for peaceful development and better lives, but is also a mission that requires all human to fight for its realization.

To this end, we have the“2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development” in the UN, the vision of“Healthy China 2030” from China’s government, as well as other health strategies and health actions elsewhere in the world. These are all exhibition of the unremitting efforts we’ve made to the basic human right of health.

Yet the world is still faced with multiple global health challenges. The first major challenge arises from the damaging inequality of health at a global level. No less than half of the population in our world still have no access to basic health services, including the products needed to provide health services. Worse still, illnesses plunged nearly 100 million people into poverty, which reinforces the issue of health inequality.  

Secondly, several health crises continue to be globalised. As the world is ageing faster, the growing incidence of NCDs, cancer, and mental health problems challenges healthy ageing seriously. In low and middle-income countries, medical costs in tackling these diseases have even climbed up to half of their medical expenditure.

At the same time with this epidemiologic transition, emerging infectious diseases including MERS, Ebola, and Zika virus, and re-emerging infectious diseases like cholera, hepatitis A, and measles further added to the global burden of diseases, which are threatening human health and life.

In recent years, it’s true that health and hygiene in a few developing countries have made many leaps in progress. But as we are living in the same global village, countries should further their cooperation and coordination, pooling more resources, capacity, and political will to jointly resolve the health problems facing the entire world.

Ladies and gentlemen, public health is for public good. In this globalised world, diseases are most likely to occur in countries with the weakest health systems and then spread to other nations. Thus a threat in one region can quickly become a threat to all, and no one country could be entirely free of major public health challenges.“Health for all” thus demands the participation of all, all the individuals and all the countries in the world.

Ladies and gentlemen, health is the cornerstone of social and economic development. Public health crises can hit hard at any country’s social and economic development. Likewise, the rising health care cost is a big concern for all countries. Experience has shown that, if manage properly, UHC based on Primary Health Care is affordable. The private sector in the health-related industries can play an important role by producing healthy products and services. Data shows that global spending on big health industry has reached 8 trillion US dollars in 2015, which is more than 1/10 of the world’s GDP in total, and is still growing.

Under these circumstances, starting from 2019, BFA is to hold global health forum annually and to establish a long-term platform for health cooperation and exchanges among academia, governments, industries, business community, and civil society. By doing this, we hope to contribute to all people a happier and a healthier life.

Thank you!