A meeting to summarize a program on AIDS prevention and treatment and health-themed poverty alleviation in Liangshan Yi autonomous prefecture in Southwest China's Sichuan province launched by the National Health Commission (NHC) and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation was held in Beijing via video link on Nov 13.

Ma Xiaowei, minister of the NHC, attended and addressed the meeting. 

Ma said that the program was initiated in 2017 by the NHC and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to support AIDS prevention and treatment and health-themed poverty alleviation in Liangshan. 

Lasting for three years, the program aims to improve the health conditions of the entire population in Liangshan by elevating capabilities of the prevention and control of diseases including AIDS and of child health care and basic health services.

The program has effectively contributed to achieving the goals of AIDS prevention and treatment and health-themed poverty alleviation in the prefecture, according to its evaluation results. 

2020 marks the end of the poverty alleviation campaign, said Ma, stressing that continuous efforts should be made to push forward the task and it is needed to summarize sustainable and generalized experience in Liangshan. 

Meanwhile, it is of great importance to enhance international exchanges and contribute Chinese wisdom and solution to global poverty alleviation, said Ma. 

Governor of Sichuan Yin Li, the head of the Liangshan prefectural government, and representatives of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation spoke at the meeting.

The nearly 100 participants of the videoconference included officials from the NHC, the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, the provincial health commission and center for disease control and prevention in Sichuan, and the prefectural health commission in Liangshan, as well as representatives from the Chinese Association of STD and AIDS Prevention and Control and the Beijing representative office of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.