China, Czech Republic to expand health co-op

China and the Czech Republic will increase their effort into expanding cooperation in the health sector, including hospital management, disease control, talent cultivation and the development of Chinese traditional medicine, Ma Xiaowei, vice-minister of the National Health and Family Planning Commission, said during the second China-Czech Health Forum that launched in Tianjin on Thursday.

The minister also called for further and direct exchanges on health management at a provincial level, as in the past year, Beijing, Shanghai and Hubei governments signed cooperation agreements with the Czech Republic's Ministry of Health.

Tianjin Health Bureau also signed an agreement with the Czech Health Ministry to expand cooperation in health management.

Cooperation in professional medical treatment, such as child and youth care, and cardiology and oncology departments, should be highlighted between the two countries, Svatopluk Nemecek, the Czech minister of health, told the forum.

Nemecek said the Czech Republic has great skills in hot springs therapy, which will be introduced to the Chinese market to better serve children who suffer respiratory diseases.

The minister also said that the Czech Republic's leading medicine research company, Sotio, established an autogenous immunological cell preparation lab in Beijing on Wednesday, which has the best technology in the anti-cancer field in Asia. Its aim is to supply Chinese patients with high-level anti-cancer treatment.