APEC's Health Working Group (HWG) is the region's standing forum for cooperation on health issues that affect economies, trade, and security. Its mandate is to improve health and well-being while advancing inclusive growth and development; its work includes public-health emergency preparedness, resilient health systems, digital health, and universal health coverage. The group convenes during APEC Senior Officials' Meetings and brings health experts and policymakers from member economies together to review progress and address emerging challenges.
Junghwan Park has served as HWG Chair since August 2026 while directing the Division of Health AI and Data Policy at Korea's Ministry of Health and Welfare. The role extends his work from national health-AI and data policy into regional coordination across APEC economies. The official APEC HWG page lists him in both capacities.
That appointment follows his leadership during Korea's 2025 APEC host year. Park led the Planning Team for the 15th High-Level Meeting on Health and the Economy, held in Seoul on 16 September 2025 under the theme "Connect, Innovate, Prosper: Building a Healthy, Smart and Aging-Responsive Society." He also organized the health track at the third Senior Officials' Meeting and steered the negotiation process for the Joint Ministerial Statement adopted by participating economies.
The statement established shared positions across demographic change and healthy aging, sustainable health systems, digital health and AI, mental health, supply-chain resilience, cancer control, and public-health emergency preparedness. Taken together, the 2025 ministerial process and the HWG chairmanship form a continuous health-diplomacy portfolio: first delivering a consensus outcome during Korea's host year, then carrying forward APEC's standing program of regional health cooperation.