[A summarized unofficial version of the press release]

KDCA Signs MOU with Ministry of Health of Mongolia

On Cooperation for Pandemic Preparedness

- KDCA has formed the first partnership with the Northeast Asian region to implement collaborative and comprehensive projects on public health since its launch in 2020, allocating 7.2 billion won for the 5-year ODA program for Mongolia.     

- The MOU helps expand areas of bilateral cooperation including disease surveillance, risk assessment and response, laboratory capacity-building, development of national plans on public health, and pandemic preparedness and response.

Osong, 23rd February 2024 ━ The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) signs Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Ministry of Health (MOH) of Mongolia on February 15, pledging to promote comprehensive cooperation for preparedness and response to infectious disease threats.

*Signatories: (KDCA) Commissioner Dr. Youngmee JEE

           (MOH of Mongolia) Minister Mr. Cinzorig Sodnom

The KDCA has expanded technical collaboration with Mongolia in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. Since 2023, its technical assistance has been provided to strengthen the bilateral collaboration in specific areas including laboratory diagnostics and analysis, infectious disease surveillance, and joint training programs in emerging infectious diseases. To this end, a total of 7.2 billion won is earmarked for the ODA program for Mongolia from 2023 to 2027.

As part of the program, the Korea National Institute of Health (KNIH), an institution designated as a WHO CC for AMR Reference and One Health Research in Korea, implemented an invitational training program on November 6 to 11, 2023 on antimicrobial resistance (AMR) surveillance on the external quality assessment (EQA) of antimicrobial susceptibility testing (AST).

The MOU is aimed to expand and strengthen technical collaboration by establishing comprehensive inter-institutional cooperation and partnership in the field of public health.

The MOU covers various areas of bilateral cooperation* and the ways forward to foster inter-institutional cooperation, including consultation or advisory meetings with experts and invitational and on-site training.  

*Areas of cooperation: Disease surveillance, risk assessment, public health emergencies; laboratory capacity-building and enhancement to detect emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases; development of a national plan/strategy or action plan on public health; pandemic preparedness and response, etc.

The KDCA will take the MOU as an opportunity to facilitate the planned cooperation projects with Mongolia in infectious disease emergency preparedness and response. Consequently, it is expected to build a global network which spans various partner countries, thereby enabling swift collection of information and collective actions effectively taken to prepare for the future pandemics.

KDCA commissioner Youngmee Jee said, “COVID-19 has highlighted the importance of global collaboration to effectively tackle the unexpected emergence of infectious disease threats. This MOU holds great significance, leading to the first partnership with the Northeast Asian region to execute collaborative and comprehensive projects on public health since the KDCA’s launch in 2020.”

“I hope that the two sides will make the best efforts to establish a close and future-oriented cooperative relationship, ultimately contributing to achieving our common goal of unwavering pandemic preparedness”, she added.

Minister Cinzorig Sodnom of Mongolia’s MOH said, “The MOH plans to establish the National Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in recognition of the critical need of integrating infectious disease control systems during the COVID-19 pandemic. In this regard, I sincerely appreciate the KDCA sharing its establishment story at today’s meeting and look forward to further bilateral cooperation on infectious disease control and prevention.”  

* For detailed information, please refer to the press release written in the Korean language in the file attached below.