Your Excellencies,
-    Mr. Tran Van Phuong – Chairman of Provincial People’s Committee/ Mr. Nguyen Thanh Binh – Vice-Chairman of Provincial People’s Committee
-    Prof. Tran Van Thuan, Vice-Minister of the Ministry of Health
-    Dr. Cao Hung Thai, Deputy Director General of Viet Nam Administration for Medical Services, Ministry of Health
-    Prof. Tran Kiem Hao, Director General of Thua Thien Hue Provincial Department of Health
-    Mr. Shimonishi Kiyoshi – Deputy Consulate General of Japan
-    Leaders and representatives from the Viet Nam Administration for Medical Services of the Ministry of Health, the Department of Planning and Investment, the Department of Information and Communications, the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, the Department of Foreign Affairs and the grassroots health facilities of Thua Thien Hue province.

Ladies and Gentlemen,
Good morning!
It is my honor to speak at this ceremony organized in collaboration with the Ministry of Health to inaugurate the telehealth programme using the software “Doctor for Everyone”, which aims to improve the capacity of the healthcare system at the grassroots level in Thua Thien Hue province.

At the outset, I would like to congratulate the Government of Viet Nam, the Ministry of Health and the whole healthcare system on the national response to COVID-19 including the rapid and successful implementation of the largest ever national vaccination campaign, making Viet Nam one of the six countries with the highest COVID-19 vaccination coverage rate in the world, which has created conditions for Viet Nam to move back to normal status.
I am also very pleased to share with you that, with support from the Government of Japan through UNDP, last month a team of six experts from the Centre for Research and Production of Vaccines and Biologicals of the Ministry of Health (POLYVAC) attended an introductory training on mRNA technology for COVID-19 vaccine manufacturing initiated by the World Health Organization at the World Health Organization’s mRNA technology transfer hub in South Africa.

In the context of the COVID-19 pandemic and the Industrial Revolution 4.0, UNDP places strong importance on supporting Viet Nam’s National Digital Transformation Roadmap to 2025 and vision to 2030, including digital transformation of health.

Since December 2020, UNDP cooperated closely with the Electronic Health Administration of the Ministry of Health to develop and pilot a digital solution focusing on the grassroots health facilities to connect healthcare workers at commune health stations with higher levels of the district health services to provide consultation and guidance to commune doctors, improving the quality of local health services. The digital telehealth software, also called “Doctor for Everyone”, includes a free smartphone application to connect local people in remote and mountainous areas to the commune health station. It also includes a secure video conferencing platform for multi-point calls to support regular meetings between district health centres, district general hospitals and commune health stations.

The “Doctor for Everyone” software complements the existing telehealth program according to the Decision No.2628/QD-BYT dated 22 June 2020 of the Minister of Health approving the project "Telemedical examination and treatment" for the period of 2020 – 2025, connecting national hospitals with provincial and some district hospitals, which is also led by the Ministry of Health. And it is fully aligned with the strategy and direction of the Government of Viet Nam and Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh on upgrading and strengthening the capacity of the health system at all levels, especially the capacity of the grassroots healthcare system at the commune level for early detection and treatment, including the use of telehealth.

Excellency Mr. Chairman, Vice Minister, Ladies and Gentlemen,
The programme we launch in Hue city today is built on the initial success of the UNDP grassroots telehealth programme in close partnership with the Ministry of Health over the last 2 years, implemented in Ha Giang, Bac Kan and Lang Son provinces. With the new funding from the Government of Japan, we are very happy to collaborate with the Ministry of Health to scale up the grassroots digital “Doctor for everyone” application in the five new provinces of Thua Thien Hue, Quang Ngai, Binh Dinh, Ca Mau and Dak Lak, with the ultimate aim of supporting the development of a nationwide grassroots telehealth system.

In the last few days, today and in the next few days, we have been handing over the servers, IT equipment, cameras and other equipment to the Departments of Health and selected commune health stations in these five provinces.
The “Doctor for Everyone” software will be installed into the server and connected with the two servers at the Data Centre of the Ministry of Health. Grassroots healthcare staff in the province will be trained and assisted technically to implement the programme.

On this occasion, I would like to strongly affirm UNDP’s readiness to deepen our strategic partnership and cooperation with the Ministry of Health and Provincial People’s Committees of five provinces, contributing to the development of the health sector in Viet Nam, with a particular focus on the healthcare system at the grassroots level.

Ladies and gentlemen,
Moving forward, I would like to take this opportunity to share that with other financial resource, UNDP will continue scaling up the telehealth work support to Thua Thien Hue, Binh Dinh, and Quang Ngai provinces. In this connection, I would also like to present our sincere compliments to Thua Thien Hue Provincial People’s Council and Committee, and all relevant Provincial Departments including the Department of Foreign Affairs, the Department of Planning and Investment, the Department of Finance, the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, the Department of Construction and the Department of Health, as well as the A Luoi District People’s Committee for great support and effective collaboration in preparation and approval of the Peace Village Project in A Luoi district during past months. Under this project, ten storm-resilient commune health stations will be built and upgraded, and a telehealth function room will be set up at each commune health station.

I am confident that working together, our joint efforts will contribute to a more resilient and prosperous country, where no one is left behind.
Thank you! Xin cam on!