The Breastfeeding Promotion Summit was held in Beijing on July 31. The thematic promotion for the 2017 World Breastfeeding Week was also launched during the summit.

Ma Xiaowei, vice-minister of the National Health and Family Planning Commission, attends the Breastfeeding Promotion Summit on July 31 in Beijing. 

Ma Xiaowei, vice-minister of the National Health and Family Planning Commission (NHFPC) and Zhang Laiming, vice-minister of the Development Research Center of the State Council attended the summit and delivered speeches.

The summit was co-organized by the NHFPC and China Development Research Foundation.

Ma noted that the Chinese government has been paying great attention to Children's health. It has made many efforts towardsthe promotion of breastfeeding nationwide.

The Chinese government formulated relevant laws and regulations to safeguard the rights and interests of breastfeeding. It built baby friendly hospitals across the country, improving the service for maternal and children's health. It also enhanced the publicity to raise public's awareness towards breastfeeding.

The Chinese government pushed forward the construction for maternal and children's facilities to raise public's well-being.

He urged that promoting breastfeeding will be beneficial towards maternal and children's health and will be harmonious towards the development of society, which has profound meaning to the construction of Healthy China.

In the next step, the NHFPC will further push ahead the implementation of National Nutrition Program (2017-2030), jointly cooperating with relevant departments to improve the management of baby friendly hospitals and providemore standardized and convenient maternal and children's service for households nationwide.

Zhang appealed for the joint efforts of the whole society to promote breastfeeding and to provide more supports for breast-feeding women.

Also taking part in the summit were officials from relevant national departments, Melinda Gates, president of Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Rena Flowers, UNICEF representative in China, representatives from Save the Child project and domestic and foreign experts on breastfeeding.