KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 27– Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin has been selected as the Vice President of the 75th World Health Assembly (WHA).
The Western Pacific member states of the World Health Organisation (WHO) unanimously elected Khairy to represent the region in the 75th WHA.
“Thank you to all the @WHOWPRO countries for unanimously nominating Malaysia as Vice President for the World Health Assembly 2022,” Khairy mentioned in a tweet today.
“We will bring the voice of the Western Pacific to the world assembly especially on the principles of equity, solidarity and accountability.”
The WHA acts as the ultimate decision-making body of the World Health Organization (WHO).
It is a platform that brings together all 194 member countries of the WHO, and also determines the policies of the WHO.
The WHA also appoints the director-general of the WHO, supervise financial policies, and review and adopt budgets of proposed programmes.
Khairy will represent 37 countries in the Western Pacific region, including several Southeast Asian countries (except Indonesia, Thailand, Myanmar, Timor-Leste), Australia, China, Japan, South Korea, and New Zealand.
The 75th WHA is scheduled to be held in May 2022 in Geneva, Switzerland.
Health director general Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah also congratulated Khairy on his appointment.
“It is indeed a great honour for Malaysia to be accorded the Vice Presidency of WHA position, and we will take this opportunity to pursue a bigger role in global health,” Dr Noor Hisham tweeted today.
“Coincidentally Malaysia is also serving in the executive board of the World Health Organization from 2021 to 2024.”
