Siyavuya Mzantsi
THE Chinese government will establish 100 health facilities in developing countries, while continuing to send China Medical Teams to work in African countries.
Chinese Health Minister Li Bin made the announcement at a press briefing following the Second Ministerial Forum of China-Africa Health Development in the city yesterday. Ministers in charge of health affairs in Africa and China held discussions about improving public health.
Representatives from the AU, World Health Organisation (WHO), UNAids, Unicef and the World Bank, among others, were in attendance at the forum which started on Sunday and concluded yesterday.
The forum was themed “Promoting the Access of Healthcare Service in Africa: Improving China-Africa’s Co-operation in Public Health in Post-Ebola Era.”
“Based on lessons learnt from the Ebola outbreak and the global response, both sides agree to strengthen co-operation in public health in construction of resilient public health systems and enhance collaboration across board health issues,” Li said.
She said the Chinese government would take new measures to organise short-term medical teams composed of specialists who will go to 40 African countries and work with their African counterparts.
She said from their side, they will encourage 10 large Chinese pharmaceutical and medical equipment enterprises to co-operate with their African counterparts.
South Africa’s Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi said the focus of the China-Africa forum was to save lives and improve the well-being of people. “China-Africa health collaboration should be guided by African countries’ action programmes, the WHO action programmes, the AU Agenda 2063 and UN Sustainable Development Goals.”
“We regard the whole issue of Ebola as ground zero, meaning it exposed us on the continent. It exposed us, that we have health systems that are not strong, that we have problems of efficiency, effectiveness, quality and equity.”
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