Speech by CIDCA Chairman at commemoration of 60th anniversary of China dispatching first international medical aid team

Jointly Building a Global Community of Health for All

 with Good Deeds and Boundless Love

Remarks by CIDCA Chairman Luo Zhaohui

At the commemoration and commendation conference of the 60th anniversary of China dispatching its first international medical aid team

(The Great Hall of the People in Beijing, Dec 29, 2023)

Your Excellency Vice-Premier Liu Guozhong,

Comrades, 

It is a great honor to attend today's event. First of all, please allow me to extend my warmest congratulations on behalf of the China International Development Cooperation Agency (CIDCA) on the commemoration event marking China's 60th anniversary of dispatching its first international medical aid team, and pay high tribute to the awarded comrades and units. 

Over the past 60 years, Chinese medical teams have traveled to 76 countries and regions in Asia, Africa and Latin America, treating more than 300 million patients. Every single surgery, treatment and hospital embodied the profound friendship and great love of the Chinese people and the gratitude of local people. China’s medical assistance to foreign countries has become the world's longest-lasting humanitarian action with the most extensive impact, establishing itself as a "golden brand" of the country's foreign assistance. Especially since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the Chinese foreign aid medical teams have been implementing the vision of building a global community of health for all proposed by President Xi Jinping, making extraordinary contributions to enhancing medical health capacity in developing countries and safeguarding the people's lives and health.

Comrades, medical health has always been an important direction of China's foreign assistance. 

We have led global anti-COVID cooperation. In face of the COVID-19 pandemic that is unseen in a century, we have carried out the largest and longest-lasting emergency humanitarian relief effort since the founding of the People's Republic of China. Over the past three years, China has provided large quantities of anti-pandemic supplies to more than 160 countries and international and regional organizations, provided more than 2.3 billion doses of vaccines to over 110 countries and international and regional organizations, and sent medical expert teams to 34 countries. 

We have built "small yet smart" medical brands. Foreign aid brands such as Brightness Campaign, Mobile Hospitals, and the Artemisinin Initiative were widely applauded. In sub-Sahara Africa alone, nearly 240 million people have benefited from the artemisinin combination therapy. In 2022, in his congratulatory letter to the International Forum on the 50th Anniversary of the Discovery of Artemisinin and on Building a Global Community of Health for All, President Xi stressed that China is willing to promote the building of a global community of health for all and make greater contributions to safeguarding the health of people worldwide. 

We have promoted the capacity building of sustainable development of public health. We have assisted in building the African Center for Disease Control and Prevention, and built over 50 medical infrastructure projects in such countries as the Republic of the Congo, Rwanda, Zimbabwe, Cambodia, and Kyrgyzstan. 

We have established dedicated cooperative relations with 48 hospitals in 43 countries and regions to help the recipient hospitals improve their medical service capacity through remote communication, remote consultation, dispatch of experts and donation of medical supplies. In May 2023, we sent the first national traditional Chinese medicine medical team to Cambodia.

In recent years, we have also arranged more than 1,000 medical training workshops, providing strong support for Africa's response to malaria and schistosomiasis. 

Comrades, at present, we are facing accelerated changes unseen in a century, a widening gap between the North and the South, and natural disasters combined with regional conflicts. The need for humanitarian assistance, especially in medical health, is expanding. Other developing countries have higher expectations of China and are more willing to cooperate. 

Next, the CIDCA will strengthen cooperation with departments such as the National Health Commission to make China's "golden brand" of medical assistance more prestigious and dazzling. 

First, we will continue to support building the brand of China's international medical aid teams. We will channel assistance resources towards medical health. Highlighting people’s livelihoods and focusing on key areas, we will not only support the dispatch of medical teams, the construction of hospitals and clinics, and the donation of supplies, but also strengthen the training of local medical personnel, select outstanding talents from recipient countries for further education and training in China, and help recipient countries and regions build their own medical treatment and disease prevention and control systems. 

Second, we will jointly safeguard the reputation of China's international medical aid teams. We will continue to promote the spirit of medical aid teams, selecting the best from the best and the ones with expertise, great love and noble medical ethics to join the cause. The medical teams will stay close with local governments and people, as well as with Chinese embassies and consulates, to maintain the credit of China’s foreign assistance personnel and promote the Chinese stories of foreign assistance. We will also address the concerns of our medical workers abroad. 

Third, we will actively carry out multilateral cooperation in the health sector. We are currently conducting tripartite anti-malaria cooperation with Switzerland and Tanzania, and with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, to explore provision of polio vaccine to Pakistan and Afghanistan. We have a number of collaborations with the World Health Organization within the framework of the Global Development and South-South Cooperation Fund. We will continue to expand multilateral cooperation and advocate a global community of health for all in the multilateral arena. 

Fourth, we will boost the implementation of the Global Development Initiative (GDI). The GDI proposed by President Xi in 2021, which includes cooperation in medical health, has received extensive support from over 100 countries and international organizations including the United Nations. The CIDCA has established the Global Development Promotion Center and the $4 billion Global Development and South-South Cooperation Fund, financed a $12 billion special fund from domestic and international financial institutions, and set up a project pool and a funding pool for global development projects. Over 1,000 "small yet smart" projects have been implemented, many of which are in the field of health, including training programs. We welcome related domestic departments to apply to the fund and participate in the GDI implementation. 

Thank you all!