Ma Xiaowei meets with WHO director-general

Ma Xiaowei, minister of the National Health Commission (NHC), met with WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus in Beijing on July 16.

Ma Xiaowei, minister of the National Health Commission, meets with WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

Ma and Tedros exchanged ideas on health cooperation.

Ma appreciated WHO’s leading role in guaranteeing global health security and pushing forward the fulfillment of health-related sustainable development goals.

He highly praised the good cooperation between China and WHO.

“China is willing to strengthen health cooperation with WHO under the framework of Belt and Road Initiative,” he noted.

Tedros gave his thumbs up to the achievements of China’s health sector.

He said that WHO is willing to participate in the Belt and Road initiative and further cooperate with China in the health sector under the framework of China-Africa Cooperation Forum.

“WHO expects China to play a leading role in global health sector,” he added.

After the meeting, Ma and Tedros signed an agreement on dispatching junior professional staff to WHO and a letter of intent on cooperation on jointly supporting African countries’ public health capacity building and strengthening contagious diseases prevention and control.

Tedros also reviewed Beijing’s community-level health care and the relevant work of the foreign aid medical team.

Cui Li, vice-minister of the NHC, also attended the meeting.