5th International Roundtable on China-Africa collaboration

On March 26-28, 2015, the 5th International Roundtable on China-Africa Collaboration, co-hosted by the Tsinghua University Research Center for Public Health and the China Chamber of Commerce for Import and Export of Medicines and Health Products (CCCMHPIE), was held in Beijing, China.

Focused on “A universal coverage of health care and high quality, accessible essential commodities, medicines and vaccines,” the roundtable passed the official Beijing Policy Recommendations 2015, which pointed out that collaboration between China and African governments, as well as with international organizations, civil society and the private sector, should be strengthened through dialogue and knowledge exchange

Hosting the opening ceremony, Ren Minghui, director of the Department of International Cooperation of the National Health and Family Planning Commission of the PRC, mentioned that the health corporation between China-Africa has a very long history. Since China sent the first foreign aid medical team to Africa in 1963, it has sent more than 20,000 volunteers to 45 countries and regions in Africa and treated about 230 million people till now. From 2014, China has given unprecedented health assistance to help African countries to fight Ebola.

Mr Ren said that, in the future, China will continuously send medical workers to Africa to help them fight Ebola, aiming to realize the goal of “Zero report, no outbreak”. And at the same time, China is willing to aid Africa to enhance its ability of disease surveillance and detection and make new contributions for the global heath security.

Discussions at the three-day roundtable focused on the following topics: