China and the European Union (EU) are looking for more chances to cooperate in the health business, according to a vice-minister of the National Health and Family Planning Commission who made the remark at a Sino-EU health conference, during a visit to EU headquarters and Belgium, April 9-11.

Jin Xiaota, who led a delegation in the visit, told the gathering about China’s developments in healthcare reforms, food safety standards, risk assessment, health informatization, contagious disease prevention and control, and population controls, while Ladislav Miko, acting director-general of the European Commission’s health and food safety dept, said that they were happy with the improvements in Sino-EU health cooperation.

Miko went on to comment that, since China and the EU face many similar challenges in health and food safety, they work together for ways to increase efficiency and the two groups reached a consensus on cooperation in health system development, food safety, e-health, and global health and renewed a memorandum of understanding on cooperation, symposiums and the exchanging of experts.

In Belgium, Jin also met with officials and experts and exchanged ideas on medical insurance and visited Belgian medical institutes to gain more experience.