Good morning distinguished participants from Asia-Pacific Countries, my colleagues from various WHO regional offices and to our partners from the OECD.
In the occasion of launching of the Health at a Glance Asia Pacific 2012 publication, I would like to start by congratulating everyone involved for their invaluable work in producing this important report on key aspects of health and health systems.
This report gives a concise and quantitative overview of health status, determinants of health, health-care resources and utilization, and health expenditure and financing in the Region.
This comparative analysis is particularly valuable to evaluate the performance of health-care systems and promote the development of evidence-based health policy in the Region.
As you know, countries in the Asia/Pacific region are diverse with health systems that often differ greatly.
Being able to compare health system performance across countries can provide fresh ideas and approaches, as well as draw attention to good practices.
We have more work to do before we can reliably measure the quality of care across a broad range of services, but the first steps we have taken in this publication are significant.
This publication was jointly prepared by the WHO regional offices for the Western Pacific and South-East Asia, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, and the OECD/Korea Policy Centre.
It has been an honour for us to work with OECD on this fine volume.
We hope that you find it useful.
Thank you.