Chinese Assistant Foreign Minister Shen Guofang in Shanghai Tuesday called for the Asia-Pacific region to strengthen international cooperation, as public health has become a global issue.

Shen made the remarks at the Ministerial Segment of the 60th Session of UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) held in Shanghai.

Shen said the outbreak of the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) in some countries last year and the bird flu that happened not long ago have demonstrated once again that the region should increase international cooperation in this area.

The ESCAP, he said, is the main economic and social development organization of the UN in the Asia-Pacific region and should put on its priority agenda for the next few years the strengthening of the public health system, with a view to set up a solid "firewall" for people's health and economic growth in the region.

It is one of the three tasks the ESCAP should focus on in future to reinforce public health capacity by establishing and improving the emergency reaction mechanism in the region so as to better enable it to meet challenges, Shen said.

The other two tasks are to play a leading role in encouraging the early realization of the Millennium Development Goals and to give priority to poverty-alleviation, managing globalization and handling emerging social problems in the region.

Shen stressed that in the globalization era, regional cooperation is an inevitable choice and also an effective way for the Asia-Pacific countries to rise up to global challenges.

(Xinhua News Agency April 28, 2004)