President Xi Jinping calls for intensified exchanges, cooperation in healthcare

The BRICS nations have pledged to strengthen the integration of traditional medicine in their national healthcare systems to improve services, according to a declaration by the five nations released during a high-level meeting on Thursday.

"It is necessary to strengthen the integration of traditional medicine in the national healthcare system as a valuable means to promote and encourage the practice, education and training ... of traditional medicine to improve the quality and outreach of healthcare services," said the declaration, released during the BRICS Health Ministers Meeting and a High-Level Forum on Traditional Medicine in the port city of Tianjin.

President Xi Jinping sent a congratulatory letter to the meeting.

"Traditional medicine is an important carrier of fine traditional culture, and plays an important role in encouraging different civilizations to learn from each other and protect people's health," Xi said. "I hope various parties involved in the meeting will intensify exchanges and cooperation in health and learn from each other in traditional medicine to work together to cope with public health challenges."

It is the second time China has hosted such a meeting. The first BRICS Health Ministers Meeting was held in Beijing in 2011. The five countries have chosen priority areas for cooperation in the past six meetings, including intensifying health monitoring; research into tuberculosis, AIDS and malaria; and development and research into drugs, according to the National Health and Family Planning Commission.