(VOVworld) – Vietnam has made significant achievements and completed a number of its UN Development Goals related to healthcare. Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung told the ceremony opening the 12^th ASEAN Health Ministers’ Meeting in Hanoi on Thursday that three quarters of Vietnam’s population has registered for healthcare insurance and Vietnam’s healthcare staff is improving both in quality and quantity. He said that Vietnam has better healthcare indexes than other countries with the same per capita income.

Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung highlighted efforts to build an ASEAN community by 2015, which places citizens at the core of development, saying healthcare plays an increasingly important role in human resource development: "It’s necessary for us to enhance cooperation for a universal healthcare coverage, ensuring access to high quality healthcare services for everyone. In the short term, priority should be given to vulnerable people and those living in remote and disadvantaged areas. It’s also very important to strengthen cooperation in preventing infectious diseases that are spreading with complicated developments in ASEAN and the world as a whole."
Themed “Better health for the ASEAN Community after 2015”, the event drew the participation of nearly 200 ministers and health officials from 10 ASEAN countries as well as from China, the Republic of Korea, Japan, and several international organizations. The meeting will close on Friday.