Korea will accelerate cooperation with Uzbekistan in public health, initiated by President Moon Jae-in’s visit to the Central Asian country in April.
The Ministry of Health and Welfare said the government would dispatch a delegation to Uzbekistan from Tuesday to Friday, announce an action plan for the development of eHealth system in Uzbekistan, and operate a working-level organization to advance the pharmaceutical industries in both countries.
The delegation on Wednesday agreed on the “Bilateral Action Plan for Smart Healthcare and the Development of eHealth System” to expand cooperation in the field of public health information.
Uzbekistan’s Ministry of Public Health regards the need for an improvement in public healthcare in the country and the unbalanced distribution of physicians and medical institutions among the regions as major healthcare issues. Thus, it is promoting innovation in the public healthcare service through the application of eHealth based on information and communications technology (ICT).
Uzbekistan’s action plan aims to strengthen cooperation with Korea, which has excellent technologies and abundant experiences in the use of ICT in public healthcare.
Under the plan, the two countries will implement six tasks by 2021, including establishing a strategy to digitize information of the public healthcare in Uzbekistan, conducting pilot projects for ICT-based medical system cooperation, and developing and operating free or paid education programs to nurture eHealth experts.
The two will collaborate for the advancement of the pharmaceutical sector as well.
The Uzbek government has designated the pharmaceutical industry as a core development sector and has tried to reduce the nation’s high dependency of 80 percent on drug imports. The country is striving to enhance the local pharmaceutical industry and attract investments from excellent foreign pharmaceutical companies by providing benefits such as reducing taxes and tariffs.
In a summit with Moon, Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev proposed to build a special pharmaceutical complex to attract Korean drugmakers.
To continue the discussion, health authorities and private institutions from the two countries held the first meeting of the working-level pharmaceutical industry officials in Tashkent on Wednesday.
The participants discussed the location conditions for the cluster of Korean pharmaceutical firms, possible preferential measures for Korean companies and investment protection measures in the meeting.