Honorable Ministers, distinguished delegates, colleagues in global health,
ladies and gentlemen,

I sincerely appreciate your active participation in the "ASEAN-Japan Health Ministers Meeting: Universal Health Coverage and Population Ageing". I am grateful that we were able to share our views and experiences to accelerate our efforts toward achieving sustainable UHC and our common future challenge, population ageing, which eventually will bring us to the very achievement of the SDGs.

Today, we have successfully adopted the Joint Statement which includes our commitment to "ASEAN-Japan UHC Initiative" aiming to achieve sustainable UHC by 2030. This initiative will be a significant milestone to enhance our collaboration on UHC in our continuous journey to promote good health for our citizens. Furthermore, I would like to bridge our regional actions to the global movement. Japan is fully committed to contribute to the world by taking leadership together with the ASEAN Member States to achieve UHC and overcome population ageing.

Before concluding my remarks, I would also like to invite you to a global movement on UHC. One is "IHP for UHC2030" as a multi-stakeholder platform on UHC. The other is "UHC Forum 2017" to be held in Tokyo 12-13 December this year, co-organized by Japan, the WHO, the World Bank and others to further advance UHC at national level by sharing good practices. Building on today's fruitful discussions, I welcome ASEAN Member States to participate in these opportunities.

Reiterating my sincere gratitude to all of your productive contribution, now, I would like to bring this meeting to a close. As we have reached a great success, I hope to hold ASEAN-Japan Health Ministers Meeting again.

I thank you once again for your active participation, and I look forward to meeting you all in the near future.