Mr. President:

I have the honour to introduce the draft resolution A/58/L.5 entitled "Enhancing Capacity Building in Global Public Health" under Agenda Item 60.

Mr. President,

To halt and begin to reverse, by 2015, the spread of HIV/AIDS and incidence of malaria and other major diseases is one of the development goals set in the United Nations Millennium Declaration.  To achieve such a goal, the international community needs to pay greater attention to capacity building in global public health.  The SARS outbreaks in certain countries and regions in the first half of this year  once again demonstrated that public health has become a global issue and therefore calls for global cooperation.  Only by enhancing the capacity of the international community to combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other infectious diseases and boosting national capacity building in public health can there be a solid basis for development and prosperity in all countries.  With this in mind the Chinese Delegation has taken the initiative of submitting the draft resolution entitled "Enhancing Capacity Building in Global Public Health".

The main elements of this draft resolution include:  

Recalling the UN Millennium Declaration adopted by heads of state and government at the UN Millennium Summit and the development goals contained therein, in particular the health-related development goals;

Recognizing that globalization of trade and increased international travel have increased the risk of rapid worldwide spread of infectious diseases, posing new challenges to public health;

Noting with concern the deleterious impact on humankind of various major infectious diseases and epidemics, and especially the heavy burden they impose on the developing countries;

Welcoming the current success of the affected countries in combating SARS;

Emphasizing the need for greater international and regional cooperation to meet new and existing challenges to public health;  

Welcoming the efforts of WHO and other UN bodies as well as the private sector and civil society in enhancing capacity building in global public health and in promoting public health at the country level;

In the operative part, the draft

Urges Member States to further integrate public health into their national economic and social development strategies and consistently improve their public health systems;  

Calls upon Member States and the international community to raise public awareness of good public health practices, including through education and the mass media;  

Calls for the improvement of global public health preparedness and response systems, including systems of prevention and monitoring of the infectious diseases;  

Invites the regional social and economic commissions to cooperate closely with Member States in their capacity building in public health;

Encourages UN agencies, bodies, funds and programs to continue to address public health concerns in their development activities and programs, and to actively support capacity building in global public health; and

Requests the Secretary-General to include observations on the issue of enhancing capacity building in global public health in his report on the follow-up to the outcome of the Millennium Summit to be submitted to the General Assembly at its fifty-ninth session.

During the consultations on this draft resolution, delegations have put forward many constructive ideas and proposals that further enriched the draft resolution and made it more comprehensive. I am confident that the adoption of this draft resolution by the General Assembly will not only inspire Member States to give higher priority to capacity building in public health, but also play an important role in achieving the development goals set in the UN Millennium Declaration.
 
Mr. President,

Before the text was issued, 120 countries joined the co-sponsorship of this draft resolution. Now, we are another 36 countries who have just joined the co-sponsorship, which are Albania, Bhutan, Bulgaria, Ecuador, Estonia, Fiji, Gabon, Jordan, Kyrgyzstan, Liechtenstein, Maldives, Mauritania, Monaco, Nauru, Papua New Guinea, Republic of Moldova, Romania, Seychelles, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Uruguay, Haiti, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Ukraine, Bolivia, Costa Rica, Israel, Argentina, Marshall Islands, Norway, Venezuela, Switzerland, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Eritrea and Mali. Please allow me to express, on behalf of the Chinese Government, our sincere thanks to all those countries that have shown interest in and given their support for this draft resolution.  We truly hope this draft resolution can be adopted by consensus.  

Thank you, Mr. President.