During 6 – 7 June 2023, Mr. Natapanu Nopakun, Deputy Director-General of the Department of Information, and Deputy Spokesperson of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Thailand attended a High-level Meeting on “Pandemic & the Economy 2023: A Pandemic-Resilient Society” in Helsinki, Finland, at the invitation of the Asia-Europe Foundation, Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare, and the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health of Finland. The objective was to promote dialogue among high-level officials from the public health sector and other sectors in shaping policies and strategies related to COVID-19. The meeting focused on shifting policies from addressing the pandemic towards building a pandemic-resilient society, taking into account differences in the public health infrastructure, economy, and society of each country. Although there is ‘no one size fits all policy or strategy’, there were policy components and general practices presented at the meeting that could be adapted by partner countries of the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) for future implementation.

Mr. Nopakun shared Thailand’s experience and lessons learned, in his capacity as Spokesperson for the Centre for COVID-19 Situation Administration (CCSA) on (1) the establishment of a centralised structure for management and public/crisis communications under the CCSA, (2) the need to balance public health and the economy and (3) efforts to  strengthen data infrastructure related to COVID-19 (travel measures and related documentation) which was advanced during Thailand’s host year for APEC in 2022.

The High-level Meeting provided an opportunity to listen to the experiences of different countries, which includes how to build trust in government agencies during the pandemic and cooperation with the media to disseminate accurate and timely information. The meeting also encouraged participants to apply the knowledge gained and good practices, such as the development of applications to promote public health and economic activities, in order to strengthen preparedness for future pandemics.  In addition, it was an opportunity to listen to different perspectives in policy making on how to strike a balance between public health and the economy, and to expand international networks for future collaboration.