Senior health officials from the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) countries on Monday called for deepening public health collaboration, aiming to build a healthier future for all.
Gathering in Xi'an, the capital of northwest China's Shaanxi Province, health leaders from SCO member states and dialog partners, and representatives of the SCO and the World Health Organization (WHO) were attending the eighth SCO Health Ministers' Meeting.
Under the theme of "Promoting Sustainable Health Development and Sharing a Healthy Future," the attendees discussed strategies for tackling shared global health challenges.
Central to the discussions was the collective need to strengthen emergency response systems, expand access to primary healthcare, harness digital technologies, and promote the development of traditional medicine across the SCO countries.
Presiding over the meeting, Lei Haichao, head of China's National Health Commission, highlighted the role of dialog and cooperation in pioneering reforms in regional and global health governance systems amid an evolving international landscape with overlapping crises.
In his address, Lei outlined China's domestic achievements in improving public health and healthcare reforms, and reaffirmed China's commitment to advancing policy coordination and technological cooperation with SCO partners.
He also called for greater use of existing platforms -- including the China-SCO Emergency Medical Center, the SCO Hospital Cooperation Alliance, and the SCO Forum on Traditional Medicine -- to enhance joint capacity-building efforts in emergency response, primary care, digital healthcare, and traditional medicine across the SCO countries.
Senior health officials from Belarus, India, Iran, Pakistan, Russia, Kazakhstan and other SCO countries shared updates on their countries' health initiatives and echoed the need to strengthen cooperation within the SCO framework.
As the country holding the rotating presidency of the SCO for 2024-2025, China has introduced the theme "SCO Year of Sustainable Development" to guide cooperation efforts across multiple sectors, with public health identified as a key priority.
Speaking at the opening ceremony, SCO Secretary-General Nurlan Yermekbayev emphasized that building resilient and inclusive healthcare systems is essential to securing a sustainable future.
He emphasized the imperativeness to address the public health challenges faced by SCO countries, which together represent nearly half of humanity.
Saia Ma'u Piukala, WHO regional director for the Western Pacific, lauded China’s advancements in the healthcare sector.
"China has built a strong, resilient health care system and health insurance system. That's a huge achievement. China also increases the life expectancy to over 78 years. So, this is a huge achievement and improvement in the health of the people of China. Second, I think China can use their [its] experience of building this health systems [which are] strong, resilient, to share it with other countries so [that] other countries can learn from China's model," he said in an interview with China Central Television on the sidelines of the meeting.
Hans Henri P. Kluge, WHO Regional Director for Europe, also highly commented on China's leadership in global health and its vision for building a global community of health for all.
SCO health officials push for deeper coordination toward better future
