中国与非洲加强卫生健康合作

This week Beijing hosts a discussion on how China and Africa can help each other tackle global health issues. One of the focuses will be on HIV AIDS.

"My name is Mark Stirling, I head up the UNAIDS Office here in China."

"Why is cooperation with China important? Because China has a broader view of cooperation. So it's not just a matter of development aid but there could also be the possibility of looking at drug security in regards to investment from China, technical cooperation from China, the promotion of public-private partnerships, perhaps training, capacity building, Africa-China around anti-retrovirals. There's a broader range of interventions possible through China's South-South cooperation framework which could be now leveraged and focused in terms of anti retroviral drug security In Africa."

This meeting is the third international roundtable discussing ways China and Africa can help each other within the area of healthcare. Dr Michael O'Leary is from the World Health Organisation, which is helping to organize the event. He says the meeting will be more than just a talking shop.

"We really recognize the need to have concrete outcomes from this so for example there will be three satellite sessions at this one focusing specifically on concrete outcomes. The WHO will be especially involved in one on schistosomiasis. That's a parasitic disease that is now mostly controlled in China through very strong public health efforts over time but that is still a huge problem in Africa."

Africa is still way behind the rest of the world in terms of health care. Live expectancy there is only 53 years old, compared to the global average of 68. But the conference in Beijing is not simply about offering help. Michael O'Leary again:

"Actually it's very much a two way thing. Africa, likewise, has developed very strong experience and expertise that can be beneficial to China. This includes some of the approaches Africa has taken to deal with many of its problems that involve, for example community level interactions and community support and how the private sector, for instance, can benefit moving things forward in the health sphere. Africa has lot of that kind of experience that can be shared with China and help China develop its own rural health systems."

Last year trade between China and Africa reached a record high of 160 billion dollars. Experts at the roundtable in Beijing will be hoping this growing partnership can also help both sides increase the health of their populations.

For CRI, I'm Dominic Swire.