ASEAN health ministers to hold talks in Malaysia
ASEAN health ministers to hold talks in Malaysia
Agence France-Presse, Kuala Lumpur
Southeast Asian health ministers will gather here on Saturday for
a meeting to discuss ways of combating the SARS virus, a
Malaysian minister said on Tuesday.
Health Minister Chua Jui Meng said ministers from China, Hong
Kong, South Korea and Japan have also been invited to the
meeting, which would be opened by acting Prime Minister Abdullah
Ahmad Badawi.
Chua said the meeting would discuss the need to impose health
declaration cards for visitors from East Asia as well as sharing
laboratories to fight the spread of the Severe Acute Respiratory
Syndrome (SARS) virus.
They would also focus on airport control measures, especially
on improving the screening of travelers, he was quoted as saying
by Bernama news agency.
Senior officials would meet on Friday to lay the groundwork
for the ministerial meeting to be held at the administrative
capital of Putrajaya.
Chua said ministers from Singapore, Thailand, Cambodia, Brunei
and Indonesia have so far confirmed their attendance.
A declaration to be issued by the ministers would be submitted
to ASEAN leaders at their summit in Bangkok on April 29 to
discuss SARS, he added.
All 10 ASEAN leaders are expected to attend the unprecedented
SARS summit in Bangkok next week, Thailand's foreign minister
said Tuesday.
"Every leader will come," Foreign Minister Surakiart
Sathirathai told reporters.
"The prime minister has assigned me to coordinate with all
ASEAN leaders and to my understanding all leaders including
(Myanmar's Senior General) Than Shwe, the Laotian prime minister
and President Megawati (Soekarnoputri of Indonesia) will attend
the summit," he added.
The rare emergency meeting on April 29 of ASEAN leaders to
discuss the SARS crisis was announced last week by Thailand at
Singapore's initiative, and will be chaired by Cambodian Prime
Minister Hun Sen.
The Thai government said shortly afterward that Myanmar's Than
Shwe would assign a deputy to attend the one-day meeting, to be
held at the foreign ministry in Bangkok.
Surakiart said Malaysia's Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, who
is on an extended break before his retirement in October, would
dispatch acting prime minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi to attend.
"Mahathir is on vacation, so his deputy Badawi will represent
Mahathir at the summit," Surakiart said.
Another ministerial meeting is expected to be held in Manila
ahead of the summit, officials said.
Five of the 10 Association of Southeast Asian Nations have
recorded SARS deaths -- Singapore, Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia
and the Philippines.