On 28 May 2024, Mr. Wattanawit Gajaseni, Director-General of Thailand International Cooperation Agency (TICA), together with, Dr. Yongyot Thammawut, Director-General of the Department of Medical Sciences, and Mr. Steven G. Olive, Mission Director of International Development/ Regional Development Mission for Asia (USAID/RDMA), presided over the Opening Ceremony of Laboratory Capacity Building for High-priority Pathogens, Tripartite Project under the TICA – USAID Strategic Partnership, held at the Regional Medical Sciences Center 8, Udonthani, during 28 – 31 May 2024. Dr. Boualay Norchaleun, Deputy Director of National Center of Laboratory and Epidemiology (NCLE) and the executives along with laboratory technicians, participants to the first workshop, from the Ministry of Health of Lao PDR, was also present at the event.

At the opening ceremony, Director-General of TICA expressed his appreciation to Department of Medical Sciences, USAID/RDMA, and Royal Thai Embassy in Vientiane, and Regional Medical Sciences Center 8, Udonthani, for their support and cooperation as well as highlighted the aim of this project, which is to strengthen the laboratory capacity for high-priority pathogens, so as to handle concerning infectious diseases such as tuberculosis and potential cases of other emerging diseases. This is one of the most pressing health security agendas for Lao PDR.

In addition, this project is also in line with Thailand’s development diplomacy goals, which aims to address transborder public health challenges in the region that have direct impacts on the people’s livelihood, both on the Thai side and on the Lao side. The Director-General also reaffirmed that the project will foster the people-to-people and government-to-government relations as well as make synergy on development cooperation in medial fields for better in public health in the region to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals, in particular Goal 3: Good health and well-being in the long-run.