HANOI -- It is a great honor for me to be here on behalf of the U.S. Government and USAID to join you in opening this 8th Annual National Conference of Vietnam Public Health Association today.

Public health represents a major part of the United States Agency for International Development's global programs and we continue to be privileged to work with you here in Vietnam to address significant existing, emerging and re-emerging public health issues.

In particular, the U.S. Government has been privileged to support the Government of Vietnam, key stakeholders and universities in many ways including in Vietnam's programs addressing Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza, HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and infectious diseases.

In these health areas, the U.S. Government has provided over $500 million in support to Vietnam since 2005, largely for HIV/AIDS. We believe strongly that our collaborative efforts with many of you in this room have contributed to Vietnam's overall effort to improve health systems capacity, an area in which we will be increasingly focuses as the Government of Vietnam continues deepening its commitments in the health sector.

For USAID, this conference is an important part of our support to the Vietnam One Health University Network which was the first one health national network formed in the region last year. This support comes under our global Emerging Pandemic Threats program which seeks to aggressively preempt or combat diseases that could spark future disease outbreaks or pandemics.

As many if you know, nearly 75 percent of all new, emerging, or reemerging diseases affecting humans at the beginning of this century originated in animals. This underscores the need for the development of comprehensive one health disease detection and response capacity, particularly at the animal-human interface where disease threats are likely to emerge.

It is wonderful to see people from different sectors, working both within and outside governmental organizations and educational institutions in this conference. We thank the Public Health Association for the leadership role you play in bringing us all together this week Fostering communication and coordination regionally and globally and pursuing a One Health approach will help to stimulate whole-of-society, multi-sector, multi-disciplinary, and community-based actions to address high impact disease threats at the animal-human-environment interface.

Again, USAID applauds your leadership and efforts in public health and stands ready to work with you where we can. Thank you for this opportunity again to join you today to further strengthen our partnership and to look forward to the next five-year strategy that will include a robust cooperation in the health sector.

Here's to your health, happiness and a successful and fruitful conference. Xin cam on.