Li Bin, minister of the National Health and Family Planning Commission (NHFPC), met with Svatopluk Němecek, minister of the Czech Health Ministry, on October 27. Both sides held talks on co-organizing the first health ministers’ forum of China-Central and East European Countries and key cooperative projects expected to launch in 2015.

Li Bin said that Sino-Czech health cooperation has made many achievements in the last year. The medical institutions of Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin and Hunan have set up long-term partnerships with Czech counterparts through cooperation with Sino-Czech health administrative departments, which was an implementation of the Sino-Czech health cooperative project signed in May 2013. Li hoped that China and the Czech Republic could further expand the cooperation areas, making Sino-Czech health cooperation a model of Sino-Central and East European Countries health cooperation.

Minister Němecek agreed with Li’s assessment of Sino-Czech health cooperation and expressed his gratitude to China for its efforts in pushing forward the two countries’ health cooperation. He said that the Czech Health Ministry has covered Traditional Chinese Medicine treatment under the national health insurance. The ministry also invited Chinese children to the Czech Republic to enjoy spa treatments and launched cooperation in diagnosis and treatment of children.

Both sides reached agreements to hold the first health ministers’ forum of China-Central and East European Countries in Prague in 2015. They also agreed to organize the first batch of Chinese children to visit the Czech Republic to receive spa treatment. They will also support more hospitals in China and the Czech Republic to set up partnerships, exchange medical science research and medical staff, and donate medical equipment to each other.

Milos Zeman, president of the Czech Republic, was accompanied by Němecek on a visit to China. President Xi Jinping, accompanied by Li Bin, met with Zeman on October 27. Li and Němecek jointly signed a memorandum of understanding in Sino-Czech medical and health strategic cooperation in the presence of the two countries’ leaders.

Relevant people from the departments of Planning and Information; Health Science, Technology and Education; International Cooperation; Bureau of Disease Prevention and Control; and State Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine accompanied the meeting.