Conference to tout healthy lifestyles

"Mayors have the power to improve the lives and well-being of residents," Schwartlander said.

Michael Bloomberg, former mayor of New York City, and US and WHO goodwill ambassador for noncommunicable diseases, will address the conference via video link.

Bloomberg was famous for pushing policies such as a soda tax and a higher legal age limit for smoking, said Liu Yuanli, dean of the School of Public Health at Peking Union Medical College.

In addition, the conference will gather leaders from the private sector, Schwartlander said. "They promote health through technologies and innovations."

Related panels with Robin Li, chairman and CEO of Baidu, and Baroness Joanna Shields - UK minister for internet safety and security and founder of WeProtect, a pioneering global alliance to end sexual exploitation online - will discuss entrepreneurship and innovative approaches for delivering health outcomes, Schwartlander said.

It is only through a range of sectors such as police, city planners, education, transport and others coming together that health issues can be addressed, he added, suggesting multi-sector collaboration within the government.

Many public health challenges cut across various sectors, such as tackling noncommunicable diseases, antimicrobial resistance or infectious disease, he said.

"To meaningfully address these issues, the health sector cannot do it alone, and a joint effort is needed."

For example, he cited finance ministries raising taxes on unhealthy products, transport and police ministries coming together to tackle road deaths and injuries, as well as tobacco control.

"To effectively curb smoking, we need to raise taxes on tabacco and make policies that create 100 percent smoke-free spaces and promote plain packaging to remove the glamorous image of smoking," he said.