OREANDA-NEWS. July 21, 2011.  President of Turkmenistan Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov received Zsuzsanna Jakab, Director of the World Health Organization's (WHO) Regional Office for Europe, who had arrived in the Turkmen capital to participate in the festivities and the international exhibition and conference of Turkmenistan’s achievements in the field of medicine.

Thanking for the opportunity of a personal meeting, the guest noted that the international medical forum in Ashgabat would become a new step to promote long-term, mutually beneficial cooperation in this sphere. Anticipating the formal pat of the meeting, the Director of WHO/Europe presented the souvenir Galkynysh, which symbolized fruitful long-term cooperation between Turkmenistan and the World Health Organization, to President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov. Congratulating the Turkmen leader on the 16th anniversary of the adoption of the Health State Programme and the Day of Health and Medical Industry Worker celebrated on July 21, Mrs. Zsuzsanna Jakab emphasized that the significant progress made in the healthcare sector in recent years vividly evidenced the social orientation of the policy of the Turkmen state.

Greeting the Director of the WHO/Europe, the Turkmen leader focused with satisfaction on fruitfulness of the Turkmenistan-WHO active dialogue, which facilitated implementing successfully important joint projects in various spheres of modern medicine. President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov emphasized that cooperation of Turkmenistan with the authoritative international organizations, particularly with the UN and its structures, was consistent with the key objectives of national development, including in the sphere of protection and promotion of the health of citizens of the country.

During the meeting the Turkmen leader and the Director of the WHO/Europe discussed priority vectors and prospects of bilateral partnerships given the tasks set to the national health sector. It was noted that due to the reforms launched in the national healthcare system in the framework of the Health State Programme citizens of Turkmenistan had access to a wide spectrum of medical services rendered by modern clinics and diagnostic centres throughout the country. All this along with the work on promotion of a healthy lifestyle and sports and physical culture directly contributed to bringing up a physically and morally healthy generation of the Turkmen people of the epoch of new Revival.

Focusing on the large scale of the goal-oriented programmes initiated by the Turkmen leader and successfully implemented, the guest emphasized that the World Health Organisation was keenly interested in intensifying productive cooperation and stood ready to offer its rich expertise in this critical sphere to Turkmenistan. In this context emphasis was put the significance of the international medical forum on Ashgabat.

In conclusion the President of Turkmenistan and the Director of the WHO Regional Office for Europe expressed belief that mutually beneficial partnership in the healthcare sector would be effectively enhanced.