Minister of Health Kevin Bernard recently returned to the country after representing Belize at the 2023 Global Health and Welfare Forum. The event was held in Taipai, Taiwan, where Health Ministers from across the world gathered to discuss partnerships, networking, digital technology, and tackling challenges in the health sector. Yesterday, Bernard spoke to Love News about the importance of Belize’s participation.
Kevin Bernard, Minister of Health and Wellness: “One of the main important reasons for us being at the Global Health Forum and it’s my second year there one Taiwan has assisted many countries across the world and during COVID they played a very significant role in assisting many countries and Belize was one of those beneficiaries. And so we also went there to showcase our experience, to showcase what we had to endure during COVID but at the same time to express in a unified manner our support for Taiwan but at the same time to see how can Taiwan continue to assist Belize in terms of the health reforms, in terms of achieving universal health coverage.
You know there have been discussions between us and Taiwan in how they could assist us with even a nursing program, scholarships for nursing and where they can come into Belize and offer some of that support. So there are a lot of things it’s not just about us going to a conference but it’s about us looking at opportunities for Belizeans out there.
Our presence at the Taiwan Global Health Forum along with many other countries I think there were about two hundred other countries that were present there and so we had a wonderful turnout and it’s really for us to interexchange ideas and look at policies. We all together countries that were there took out a declaration in terms of our commitment in health in ensuring that we look at digital health, looking at the comeback that we have to do after the pandemic, looking universal health coverage and other things.”
Source : Love FM
