(VNA/VOVworld) - International partners appreciate  the efforts Vietnam has made over the past few years to gain significant achievements in the healthcare sector, and pledged to continue working closely with Vietnam.

Vietnam highlights communications on preventive measures for people in remote areas (Photo: dieuduong.com.vn)

United Nations Resident Coordinator in Vietnam, Pratibha Mehta was speaking at a conference in Hanoi yesterday co-chaired by Vietnam’s Minister of Healthcare Nguyen Thi Kim Tien and World Bank Country Director for Vietnam Victoria Kwakwa. Mehta said that Vietnam has reached a number of millennium goals such as providing vaccination for most newborn children, reducing the maternal mortality rate, and providing healthcare services to mothers, poor children, and ethnic minority groups in remote areas.

At the conference, representatives of the Health Ministry urged the inclusion of Millennium Development Goals relating to health care into the local socio-economic development plans in order to secure funding from local and state budgets as foreign aid to Vietnam shrinks. The medical sector pledged to improve its competence, especially for health stations in mountainous and remote areas.