RIYADH: The Saudi health minister, Dr. Tawfiq bin Fawzan Al-Rabiah, received a global health award on behalf of the Kingdom for its excellence and leading role in combating smoking in Geneva on Wednesday, at the 72nd session of the World Health Assembly.
Saudi Arabia was one of the first countries to ratify the World Health Organization (WHO) Framework Convention on Tobacco Control in 2005, an ambitious strategic tobacco control plan to reduce smoking rates from 12.7 percent to 5 percent by 2030.
The assembly also praised the Kingdom’s efforts in reducing trans fats levels in the food industry, in accordance with the WHO’s goal to eradicate the use of synthetic trans fats by 2023.
The Kingdom also received two Healthy Cities Accreditation Certificates from the WHO for work done in the cities of Onaiza and Riyadh Al-Khubara. The pair join Ad Diriyah, Jalajel and Al-Jumum as WHO accredited healthy cities, and their certificates were collected by the undersecretary of the Ministry of Health, Dr. Hani Jokhadar, who extended his thanks to Al-Rabiah for his continued work in supporting the healthy cities program.