CICP ED spoke at Boao Forum | 20 Apr 2021

On 20 April 2021, Amb. Pou Sothirak, CICP’s Executive Director was invited to give his view about how to promote Asian regional cooperation under new circumstances at the Boao Forum Roundtable organized by China Institute for International Studies. He mentioned that regional states need to act together with a humane approach and pragmatism in their fight collectively against Covid-19. Only through active collaboration and partnership between and among all regional states, international organizations, civil societies and local health and government bodies that Covid-19 can be stopped. Ideally, the ASEAN Plus Three can forge a more effective regional response to fight Covid-19 pandemic. The APT must be more willing to undertake the primary role of managing, mitigating and responding to pandemics while at the same time strengthening national public health care systems of individual ASAEAN member countries, especially the less developed ones. This is a wakeup call for a regional mechanism to help strengthen a more effective public healthcare services for less developing countries in order to eradicate Covid-19 satisfactory.