Health is a vital part of economic growth.
A country’s economy will flourish if its people are healthy.
These sentiments were shared by Health Department’s Branch Manager for Policy, Planning and Lead planner for the APEC 2018 Taskforce, Agnes Pawiong.
While business, trade and economic growth is expected to dominate discussions during the APEC Summit, other players vital for economic growth will be equally discussed.
Amongst these, health is one sector that will bring forth policies focused to the discussion table for the 21 economies to deliberate on.
“Our theme for 2018 is: Strengthening Primary Healthcare. Though we will not fully participate in trade discussions, health is one of the enablers. When the population is healthy, the people participate in the economy,” said Pawiong.
She said for PNG, lead up preparations are progressing well and PNG will push policy agendas focused on primary healthcare.
“Our policy priority is investing in primary healthcare through innovative partnerships,” added Pawiong.
The health sector will showcase what its partners, like the churches, are delivering in the rural areas and how the PNG Government funds the churches to ensure health services are delivered.
Pawiong said the preparation right through to the actual summit in November will be a learning curve for the country and an opportunity for PNG to draw lessons from the developed economies to transform healthcare and the well-being and productivity of PNG.