China, Rwanda extend medical cooperation deal for another 5 years

KIGALI — The Rwandan Ministry of Health and the Chinese Embassy in Kigali signed here a Memorandum of Understanding to facilitate the dispatching of Chinese medical personnel to Rwanda.

"We are expecting doctors from some fields where we have some gaps in terms of specialists. We appreciate this partnership. After 40 years of medical cooperation between the Rwandan government and China, today we are expanding this agreement for another five years because we appreciate the services of those doctors so far in the country," Daniel Ngamije, Rwandan health minister, said at the signing ceremony on Sept 7.

The doctors will be working in Masaka Hospital in Kigali and Kibungo Hospital in eastern Rwanda.

Chinese Ambassador to Rwanda Wang Xuekun said China and Rwanda enjoy a long-lasting friendship, and cooperation in the fields of medical and health care demonstrates the two countries' deep traditional friendship of sharing weal and woe, through thick and thin.

"The Chinese government sent the first Chinese medical team to Rwanda in 1982. Over the last 40 years, 22 medical teams and more than 270 Chinese doctors received up to hundreds of thousands of patients and performed more than 10,000 surgical operations in Rwanda," Wang said.

He added China is willing to join hands and work together with Rwanda, to further deepen cooperation on medical and health care matters and lift their ties to a new height in the post-pandemic era.