보건복지부 영문홈페이지

Ministry of Health and Welfare and ASEAN to
Jointly Pursue Comprehensive Cooperation in Healthcare Field

- MOHW discusses ways to expand cooperation in health
insurance, medical informatization and digital health with the ASEAN
Secretariat and the Ministry of Health of Indonesia, on April 5 and
6, respectively -

The Ministry of Health and Welfare (hereinafter ‘MOHW’) held meetings with the ASEAN Secretariat and the Ministry of Health of Indonesia on Wednesday, April 5 and Thursday, April 6, respectively in Jakarta, Indonesia, the chair of ASEAN, and reached a consensus on promoting comprehensive cooperation in the health care field.

The MOHW has been working on three Korea-ASEAN cooperation projects* since 2021 in the areas of universal health care and health security (responses to infectious diseases) through the health and medical channel opened as a result of the ASEAN-Republic of Korea Commemorative Summit in November 2019.

* (Universal health care) National Health Insurance Service is tasked to help ASEAN create a health insurance financial risk management system. Korean Human Resources Development Institute for Health and Welfare is tasked to develop ASEAN-customized international training programs on universal health care

(Health security) Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service (HIRA) is tasked to help build a national pharmaceutical information system for ASEAN countries

At the meetings, MOHW and ASEAN agreed to further expand bilateral cooperation in digital health and health care informatization where Korea excels, in addition to health insurance starting from 2024, and diversify ways to cooperate with feasible applicability to the private sector, including inviting policymakers of ASEAN countries on industrial tours in Korea for training, dispatching domestic healthcare experts to the health ministries of ASEAN countries, and supporting the establishment of pilot systems.

The MOHW emphasized that the purpose of Korea-ASEAN cooperation is not only introducing Korean policy to ASEAN countries, but also developing a policy that best suits the target country, based on joint Korea- ASEAN efforts to cope with challenges facing them. It also urged the Ministry of Health of Indonesia, as the chair of ASEAN, for keen interest and support in this regard.

The ASEAN Secretariat said that Korea’s framework for Korea-ASEAN cooperation is consistent with the direction of ASEAN’s health care industry development, and hopes to formulate ways to cooperate ahead of the Korea-ASEAN high-level healthcare meeting scheduled for June 2023.

The Ministry of Health of Indonesia said that as the chair of ASEAN, it will provide as much support as possible for Korea-ASEAN healthcare cooperation projects to be implemented successfully and that Korea and Indonesia have established trust at the March 24th bilateral meeting of health ministers, which it hopes will lead to specific cooperation projects.

On March 28, MOHW and seven other healthcare organizations launched the K-Health Overseas Expansion Support Team to facilitate Korea-ASEAN healthcare cooperation in a systematic and professional manner from a long-term perspective with plans to designate the secretariat to assume the role of planning and managing K-health projects by year’s end.

The MOHW and K-Health Task Force will finish talks with the ASEAN Secretariat on new cooperation projects set to commence in 2024 and beyond, by the end of June, and obtain approval of 10 ASEAN countries by year’s end.