Southeast Asian countries should follow in China's active footsteps

China's experiences in promoting the people's health and physical fitness in the country's vast rural areas could be learned by the Southeast Asian countries, said officials and experts.

According to a survey conducted by the China Institute of Sport Science under the General Administration of Sport of China, there is a trend in narrowing disparity in the physical fitness of urban and rural residents over the past decade.

"This is evident in the reduction of urban-rural differences in terms of anthropometric measurement, physical function and strength quality, with the rural population contributing significantly due to the improvement in their physical fitness," said a report released by the institute on Friday.

The conclusion is based on the survey of more than 200,000 people from 1,732 government offices, enterprises, public institutions, schools, kindergartens and administrative villages across the country.

Aiman Som, a physiotherapist from the Sports Medicine and Research Center of Brunei, told China Daily that China's experience in promoting the people's health could be learned by countries of Association of Southeast Asian Nations, most of which also have a large rural population.

"China is very well dedicated to improving its national physical condition. With that excellence, we can cooperate to develop each other's country's national physical condition," Aiman said while attending the 1st China-ASEAN International Conference on Physical Fitness and Health Promotion, which opened in Ningbo of East China's Zhejiang province on Friday.

Martin Taylor, World Health Organization representative to China, said that over 30 percent of adults in the WHO South-East Asian region are insufficiently active.

"What is even more alarming is the high proportion of inactive school-going adolescents in these regions - 80 percent. That means, four out of every five teenagers who should be energetic are not active enough," he said.

China and ASEAN countries could join hands to elevate physical activity levels in the region, he said.

As the WHO representative to China, Taylor said that he has witnessed the transformative power of supportive environments in China.

"The inner-city river called Liang Ma River (in Beijing) has been renovated and become a hot spot for physical activity - walking, jogging, running, dancing and swimming, all times a day. This is the positive result from local government's dedicated efforts to refurbish the surrounding infrastructure," he said.

Mao Qun'an, vice director of the Office of the National Patriotic Health Campaign Commission and general director of Planning and Information Department of the National Health Commission, said at the opening ceremony of the conference that China is willing to share experiences with ASEAN countries to jointly promote the people's health condition.

Since 2000, China has conducted five surveys on national physical fitness every five years, which have provided insights into the primary conditions and trends in the physical fitness of the people and served as a crucial foundation for the scientific-based formulation of policies related to the improvement of national physical fitness.

The results of the national physical fitness survey have become important indicators and data sources for the development and evaluation of the National Fitness Program, as well as for the effectiveness assessment of the implementation of the Healthy China Initiative, which is a nationwide campaign launched by Chinese government in 2019 to promote overall national health and runs until 2030.

Li Yaying, deputy director of Education, Culture and Tourism Department of ASEAN-China Center, said this year marks the 10th anniversary of the proposal to build the China-ASEAN community with a shared future, as well as the 10th anniversary of the Belt and Road Initiative.

"Sports play an important role in deepening the understanding of people between China and ASEAN," Li said.