Sarawak has won the bid to host the 54th Asia Pacific Academic Consortium for Public Health (APACPH) Conference which would be held here from Oct 30 to Nov 1.

Sarawak Deputy Premier Datuk Seri Dr Sim Kui Hiam said Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (UNIMAS) and Business Events Sarawak (BESarawak) were behind the successful bidding of the conference, which is expected to be attended by at least 800 global experts in the field of community medicine and public health.

“The legacy that we hope for is that this conference in Sarawak to be the key to Malaysia’s and Asia’s public health developments,” he told a press conference here today.

Dr Sim, who is also the State Public Health, Housing and Local Government Minister said incidents of COVID-19 and rabies were among the public health recent challenges faced by Sarawak that required the state to gather global inputs.

“To better understand the challenges we are facing and how to tackle them, Sarawak requires a platform to learn from the best. That’s why UNIMAS and BESarawak collaborated to bid for such an important conference,” he said.

Meanwhile, BESarawak in a statement said the conference themed ‘Transcending the New Normal: Strengthening Public Health Through Education, Research and Collaboration’ aims to provide a strong platform for community and public health.

It said this could be achieved through policy and strategy development; implementation of educational, research and training programmes; as well as demonstration of effective interventions.

Source: BERNAMA News Agency