Siddharth Chatterjee, the United Nations resident coordinator in China addressed at the forum:

Thank you very much! Let me start by acknowledging the presence of the honorable Mr. Han, the Vice Chairmen of the 10th and 11th Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, honorable Mutahi Kagwe, the Minister of Health in Kenya; Dr. Tedros, the WHO Director-General; Peter Sands, Executive Director of the Global Fund; Gordon Liu,the Dean of the PKU Institute for Global health and development; and my dear friend Lucy Chen who is an indefatigable defender andchampion of public health.

Ladies and gentlemen, it's like the raining that exposes the leaking roof. The COVID-19 has revealed unanticipated problems inherent in our dependence on global supply chains and amplifies long standing structural deficiencies in health systems around the world. We can see now that underinvestment in public health in one country is a threat to global health and security everywhere else. Responses to health emergencies cannot succeed if any part of the world is left behind. Let me also take this opportunity to acknowledge China's phenomenal public health response.

As we can see the audience that is gathered right now, sitting physically in Peking University for this particular discussion. It has demonstrated that prevention works. You can actually flatten the curve through proper testing, through proper isolation, through proper public health measures and it perhaps is a message which I would like to convey to the rest of the world that embracing robust global health measures will be the key to ending the scourge of this pandemic.

I am very pleased to join and participate in this forum on South-South cooperation and development. I also send my congratulations to the newly established Peking University Institute for Global Health and Development. As representatives from government, international organizations, academia, the private sector, this is going to be a critical pathway, a digital pathway, for health for all and this is precisely what Dr. Tedros, the WHO, the rest of the UN system, the rest of the world is advocating for. Indeed, it's universal health coverage. Now, the COVID-19 pandemic struck us, like a bolt of lightning. And in that flash of lightning, we saw the contours of inequalities emerge. Contours of inequalities that actually affected the most advanced countries in the world where it actually showed the weaknesses within the health system. 

Now, it is clear that without health well-being as a central pillar, they will not be able to achieve the rest of the sustainable development goal. And if you recall the words of Herophilus, the Greek philosopher who said that "When health is absent, wisdom cannot reveal itself, art cannot manifest, strength cannot fight, wealth becomes useless, and intelligence cannot be applied." UN secretary general Mr. Antonio Gutierrez has reminded the world that stronger health systems and universal health coverage must be a priority. Ladies and gentlemen, it must be our central and most urgent priority. Now, realizing this vision, we require all of us to innovate and forge sustainable solutions to tackle long standing challenges. 

It's no coincidence that the pandemic has accelerated development of new digital solutions with contact tracing and testing that have been observed in China, critical to preventing future outbreaks and attacks. Thanks to the strong political will demonstrated by the government of China in creating appropriate policy settings to enable the use of these technologies and to enable the private sector to launch new creative platforms that are seeing a fundamental shift in the way that public health will now become nuanced into new partnerships being forged. Now such solutions will utilize big data that could form the basis to address healthcare shortcomings including human resources supply chains, disease surveillance systems, in the developing world.

I have served in Africa for many years and I have seen the value of public-private partnership. I feel deeply privileged coming from Kenya that the Minister of Health of Kenya has actually joined this discussion and will be speaking a little while later. Now, if perhaps, nowhere else digital health solutions will be more welcome than in the African continent. And the improved ICT infrastructure, mobile penetration has taken place into some of the most remote and rural parts which we have seen first-hand implementations.

If you can couple the same strong political will from governments and create the right policy setting, and form new partnerships with the private sector and civil society, we can achieve tangible results. Under the leadership of the government of Kenya, we were able to actually bring down maternal mortality ratios in 6 of the highest burdened counties by one-third and I hope to create another platform here in China, with international and Chinese companies  working together with the African continent.

Looking at those points which of where we can harness big data technology and innovation to leapfrog universal health coverage, that is where the future is going to be. How do we converge in this moment, in this opportunity, with Dr. Tedros's vision of the world which is equal and fair, and here is a country which also said that immunization and vaccines must be a global public good.

Ladies and gentlemen, public health has to be a global public good. In fact, that needs to be a priority. My request is that we have to find and implement effective scalable solutions to improve health systems in resourceful settings, which is a challenge even before COVID-19. Now, with governments facing acute severe financial challenges, we have to be clear in finding new frontiers and reinforcing multilateralism.

By 2050, Africa's population will grow to 2.5 billion people and there will be about 819 million young people. It's perhaps the greatest opportunity for us to reap the demographic dividend. However, to reap the demographic dividend, we have to have effective public health, good education and skills. Precisely what China had, that allowed it to lift 800 million people out of poverty in the last forty years, and close to 19 million in the last decade. We will need to establish new models where public health, the private sector, academia will deliver on universal healthcare. Therefore, I want to commend Peking University for this very important initiative that you have taken. I want to assure you that the UN country team in China will work with you lock step, not only see a healthy China by 2030, but also a healthy world by 2030. Thank you.