Seoul to host WHO center

A unit of the World Health Organization (WHO) dealing with environmental pollution and healthcare issues will be established in Seoul in the first half of the year, the city government and the Ministry of Environment announced, Tuesday.

According to the Seoul Metropolitan Government, the WHO Asia-Pacific Centre for Environment and Health in the Pacific Region will open in the Seoul Global Center building in central Seoul and start official duties in May.

The center is designed to provide countries in the region with the latest evidence on the nature and magnitude of existing and emerging environmental health risks. It will also assist in identifying and implementing policies to address these risks.

The ministry, the WHO Western Pacific Regional Office and the local government signed a three-way memorandum of understanding (MOU) to bring the center to the capital.

Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon, Environment Minister Cho Myung-rae, WHO Western Pacific Regional Office Director Shin Young-soo and 100 guests attended the signing ceremony at Seoul Global Center.

The organization will be the WHO’s first environment and health center in the Asia-Pacific region, and the agency’s second following its European one in Bonn, Germany, which was established in 1991.

“To create a healthy society, where people are free from detrimental environmental conditions such as fine dust and climate change, we are hosting the WHO center in Seoul,” Minister Cho said at the ceremony.

“As the European center contributed to the international community after suggesting the criterion of fine dust, we hope the Asia-Pacific entity will exercise its leadership and expertise in addressing pending regional environmental issues.”

Seoul Mayor Park vowed to make the incoming organization a key facility in Asia-Pacific.

“In collaboration with 31 Seoul-based international and local networks in the fields of environment and healthcare, Seoul City is set to help the WHO center play a key role in the region,” Park said.

The center, which plans to name its head and hire employees in March, will be divided into three teams — one on air quality, energy and healthcare, another on climate change and healthcare, and the third on water and the living environment.

According to the MOU, the center will submit its technical and financial statements to the city government and the environment ministry every year and its operations will also be assessed by them in the first, fifth and ninth years after its launch.

For the operations, the ministry will pay 940 million won ($839,000) and the city 500 million won for the first year, followed by a respective 1.9 billion won and 500 million won the following year, although each contribution needs approval from the National Assembly and the Seoul Metropolitan Council.

“Under the MOU, the WHO will raise 3.8 billion won each year from 2019 to 2023 for the center,” said an official from the local government.