UK Pledges Support for Vietnam HCMC in Becoming Health Innovation Hub

The UK government will step up cooperation with Vietnam’s southern economic hub of Ho Chi Minh City to help it soon become the health innovation hub in Southeast Asia, said British Consul General Emily Hamblin.

The diplomat made her statement while meeting with Director of the HCMC Department of Health Tang Chi Thuong on October 25.

The South Asia Research Hub under the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) and the British Consulate General in HCMC have given funding to the municipal health department to improve its medical training quality and expand research about disease patterns and public health demand.

An initial budget of GBP75,000 ($91,080), KPMG Vietnam and the Oxford University Clinical Research Unit (OUCRU), in the next six months, will help the local health sector study the development of cooperation strategies for health workforce training and public health, Ms. Hamblin said, adding that study trips to the UK will be held for HCMC’s health experts.

HCMC and the British city of Liverpool are weighing forming a twin town relationship in terms of health in the future.

(Tuoi Tre)