The signing ceremony for a memorandum of understanding between the Health Commission of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region and the GX Foundation is held on March 22. [Photo by Liang Kaichang/gxzf.gov.cn]

The Health Commission of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region and Hong Kong-based GX Foundation signed a memorandum of understanding on March 22 in Nanning, capital of the region, to jointly offer foreign aid aimed at eliminating cataract blindness.

GX Foundation has become the first partner to cooperate with Guangxi in its cataract blindness elimination project. 

Leung Chun-ying, vice-chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, said during the ceremony that friendship, which derives from close contact between the people, holds the key to sound State-to-State relations.

Guangxi is the only region of its kind in China to border ASEAN countries both by land and sea and has been an important strategic frontier for China in terms of carrying out multi-tiered cooperation with ASEAN in various areas. 

Medical teams made up of Guangxi ophthalmic medical staff members will be dispatched to Cambodia and Laos to provide free operations, helping local patients with cataract blindness to regain their sight.

The GX Foundation, set up in Hong Kong in April 2018, is the first international medical and health humanitarian aid organization that China has registered in Hong Kong. It has the preliminary goal of becoming an international non-governmental organization with a focus on conducting cataract surgeries.