United States - ASEAN Hold Medical Device Capacity Building Workshop

Hanoi July 31, 2007

A Medical Device Capacity Building Workshop, part of the U.S.- ASEAN Enhanced Partnership,  concluded today in Hanoi.  The workshop, which took place July 30 and 31, was sponsored by the ASEAN Consultative Committee on Standards and Quality Medical Device Product Working Group (MDPWG) and United States Department of Commerce.

This event focused on three major themes; building a regulatory infrastructure to promote access to and use of medical technology, expansion of the medical technology sector at the national and regional levels in ASEAN, and future areas for medical devices cooperation under the ASEAN-U.S. Enhanced Partnership.  Speakers and moderators included regulators and expert speakers from ASEAN countries as well as the United States, Europe, and Australia. 

Leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and the U.S. launched the ASEAN-U.S. Enhanced Partnership in November 2005.  The Enhanced Partnership is designed to promote ASEAN-U.S. links in all sectors of their societies, governments and economies, and to help ASEAN and the United States meet the challenges and reap the benefits of an increasingly globalized world.