Health forum to inject innovation into industry

The Global Health Forum at the Boao Forum for Asia will be held June 11 to 12 in Qingdao, East China's Shandong province, and is expected to enhance global cooperation in healthcare.

The health forum, the first of its kind at Boao, was approved by the State Council and aims at fostering communication between the government and enterprises who serve the value chain of China's healthcare industry.

Themed "Health Beyond Health - In The Year of Sustainable Development 2030", the two-day forum will feature six sub-seminars and a high-end political and business seminar. The seminars will focus on innovation in healthcare, investment, policy and new technologies.

National health is not only crucial for a country's sustainable development, but also an important topic of discussion in the international community, said Li Baodong, the forum's secretary-general.

"We still face many healthcare issues and topics, such as gene editing and anticancer drugs pricing, which are of great concern to all parties, and it is imperative that we hold a Global Health Forum to build a global platform for high-level discussion and cooperation," Li said at a press briefing.

According to the organizer, the event will be the highest-level healthcare event held to date in China, with more than 1,000 participants set to take part, involving the governments and enterprises along the health care industrial chain. From 60 to 80 industry experts, including Nobel Prize winners and academicians from home and abroad, will deliver speeches during the forum.

A total of 100 health care programs are also expected to be unveiled at the forum, which may help find new avenues for growth across various sectors, organizer said.

Despite the large healthcare market in China and the good manufacturing capabilities, how the country innovates in this area needs to be improved, and the forum can allow us to introduce some good projects from abroad, the organizer said.

Margaret Chan Fung Fu-chun, president of the Boao Forum for Asia's Global Health Forum and honorary director-general of the World Health Organization, said the forum will be a comprehensive platform for communication between government and industry and will push practical cooperation.

"The choice of Qingdao as the host of the Global Health Forum is because of the city's many advantages and development potential in the construction of a healthy city," said Chan at a sub-forum during the 2019 Boao Forum for Asia Annual Conference on March 27.

Qingdao is building itself into an open, modern, vigorous and fashionable international metropolis, the organizers said, adding that hosting the Global Health Forum will attract more global resources to the city and boost the regional economic belt.

Aiming to build a regional healthcare center, and international health and life-nourishing city, Qingdao is working to cultivate a host of healthcare-related brands and industries, according to the government. The city is also promoting the opening-up of the healthcare industry and further optimization of its business environment.

The coastal city Qingdao, the host of the Global Health Forum, works to draw global attention through an open, modern, vigorous and fashionable international metropolis image.