Li Bin, a minister with China’s National Health and Family Planning Commission (NHFPC) had a meeting with Jagat Prakash Nadda, the Indian minister of health and family welfare, in Beijing on March 26, to discuss ways to increase Sino-Indian cooperation in health and family planning, and setting up a Sino-Indian group to handle that cooperation.

Li also praised the past Sino-Indian cooperation in the health sector and pointed to the fact that China and India both have large populations and face similar problems and challenges, which is all the more reason to cooperate in traditional medicine, contagious disease prevention and control, population, medicines and public health.

She also suggested ways for China and India to cooperate in pharmaceuticals, and to encourage their enterprises to cooperate more with a common R&D center.

Nadda said that Li’s suggestions are good and that China has certain advantages in traditional medicine, while India is strong in generic drugs and would like to increase cooperation with China. He proposed that the two countries cooperate more in medical education.

Also taking part in the meeting were NHFPC officials from the general office and International Cooperation Dept.