Minister Li Bin meets with health minister of the Czech Republic

(chinadaily.com.cn)

Updated: 2014-06-25

On June 17, Li Bin, minister of China’s National Health and Family Planning Commission, met with Svatopluk Němeček, health minister of the Czech Republic. During the meeting, the two sides exchanged ideas for further cooperation in the health sectors of the two countries.

Li Bin said that in recent years, the two countries witnessed smooth cooperation and fruitful results in the health sector, with cooperation conducted in hospital management, disease control, talent training and traditional medicine. The health departments and medical institutions from Beijing, Shanghai and Hunan province signed multiple cooperation agreements with their counterparts in the Czech Republic.

Li said that the cooperation between the two countries has reached a new level. 2014 saw the 65th anniversary of establishing foreign relationships between the two countries. China hopes to maintain a friendly relationship with the Czech Republic and further enhance cooperation in healthcare reform, public hospital reform, medical research, traditional medicine and medical tourism.

The Czech Republic’s health minister highly praised the accomplishments of China’s healthcare and medical science. He said that the cooperation of healthcare was important for the two countries’ relationship. He would like to further promote cooperation between medical institutions from both countries and promote direct exchange between provinces from both countries, especially for the cooperation of the TCM sector. He hoped that people from both countries could benefit from the cooperation, thus setting a good example for China’s cooperation with Central and Eastern European countries.

Both countries agreed to organize the first China-Eastern and Central Europe Health Ministers Conference and the third Sino-Czech Health Forum together, which will be held in the Czech Republic in 2015.

Officials from the NHFPC’s bureau of disease prevention and control, bureau of medical administration, department of healthcare reform and department of international cooperation, as well as representatives from the Czech Republic, participated in the meeting.