With Sarawak in the world’s spotlight for its effective community and public health measures, Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (UNIMAS) and the Sarawak Government are now paving the way for global public health development after winning the bid to host the 54th Asia Pacific Academic Consortium for Public Health (APACPH) Conference 2023 with the support of Business Events Sarawak (BESarawak).
The conference is set to take place from 30 October to 1 November 2023 at Borneo Convention Centre Kuching with an expected crowd of 800 public health experts, practitioners and industry collaborators from across the world. The main organiser, Asia Pacific Academic Consortium for Public Health has entrusted UNIMAS as the local host; while the Ministry of Public Health, Housing and Local Government Sarawak, Sarawak State Health Department, and BESarawak are supporting the conference.
One of Sarawak’s biggest challenges is having to meet the public healthcare needs of 3 million people; concentrated in its urban districts and dispersed throughout the rural areas. The Sarawak Government has already made significant efforts to meet the demand with efforts such as forming the Sarawak Disaster Management Committee, building the Sarawak Heart Centre, and investing RM200 million ($45 million) in the Sarawak Infectious Disease Centre. The government is also in talks with the Ministry of Health Malaysia to open a cancer care centre.
“Public health is extremely important. It goes beyond preventing and responding to diseases — it is about giving everyone access to the right healthcare services and facilities to improve their quality of life and live longer,” said The Honourable Dato Sri Professor Dr Sim Kui Hian, Sarawak’s Deputy Premier and Minister for Public Health, Housing and Local Government. “The government has spent decades focusing on the improvement of healthcare and medicine but today, we are facing new challenges that need more research, collaboration and innovation. The 54th APACPH Conference will be at the heart of community and public health education and transform Sarawak into a global hub for public health research and learning.”
