On the sideline of the Sino-Central and Eastern Europe Health Ministers Forum, in Prague, on June 16, Li Bin, minister of China’s National Health and Family Planning Commission, found time for a meeting with Zlatibor Loncar, Serbia’s health minister, and Bence Retvri, a vice-minister of Hungary’s human resource ministry, where she remarked, “China and Central and Eastern Europe have increased cooperation in the economy, trade, investment, and finance in recent years and, hopefully, the two areas can cooperation more in the medical and health sector since it relates to people’s livelihood.”

Li went on to say that the Chinese government has always put people’s health first and that the Health Ministers Forum established a site for cooperation in the health sector and China is ready to cooperate more with Serbia and Hungary in mutual exchanges.

Loncar responded by saying that Serbia and China have great potential in cooperation, especially in Traditional Chinese Medicine and that he hopes China can train doctors for Serbia and support it in building a TCM center, and that he believes Serbia can cooperate with Chinese medical companies in improving his country’s medical service.

Retvri noted that Hungary has given a lot of attention to cooperation with China, especially in the health sector and the two are currently focusing on medical treatments, research and TCM and that Hungary intends to push legislative reform to provide guarantees for the spread of TCM in Hungary.

Other taking part in the meeting were members of the Commission’s general office and International Cooperation Dept.