APEC health ministers to discuss SARS next Sat. in Bangkok

Asian Economic News, June 24, 2003

SINGAPORE, June 22 Kyodo

The heath ministers of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum will meet in Bangkok next Saturday to discuss ways to restore business and consumer confidence in the Asia-Pacific region following the SARS epidemic, the APEC Secretariat said Sunday.

The APEC health ministers will also make preparations for the possible outbreak of similar epidemics in the future, the secretariat said. China and the Southeast Asian region were the hardest hit by the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) outbreak.

''APEC will look at the economic and governance implications of SARS. The next chapter in the fight against SARS is the economic recovery and future defense phase,'' APEC Secretariat Executive Director Piamsak Milintachinda said.

Milintachinda said the health ministers will identify measures for APEC member economies to implement as part of a regional strategy to move beyond the SARS epidemic, adding that the World Health Organization has called for ''unprecedented solidarity'' among the international community to overcome the threat.

APEC, set up in 1989, groups Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Peru, the Philippines, Russia, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, the United States and Vietnam.