April 1, 2005
For Immediate Release
Beijing - The Federal Minister of Health for Canada, the Honourable Ujjal Dosanjh, and Gao Qiang, Executive Minister of Health for the People's Republic of China, have signed a plan of action for cooperation between the two countries in the field of health. Parliamentary Secretary for Health, the Honourable Robert Thibault, joined Minister Dosanjh at the signing ceremony.
The action plan, which runs from March 29, 2005 to Dec. 31, 2008, builds on a 1995 memorandum of understanding between the two countries that advanced the principal that cooperation and exchange of activities on health matters would be mutually beneficial.
"Our mutual experiences with SARS and other communicable diseases have taught us that health issues have a way of transcending borders," said Minister Dosanjh. "This plan of action will help us with future collaboration and provides ample scope for the exchange of information, ideas and experts."
"This agreement marks a new stage of collaboration between Canada and China in the field of public health," said Mr. Thibault. "It bodes well for our future efforts to meet global health challenges."
With this agreement, the two nations have agreed to cooperate on a wide range of health issues, including health policies and regulations, public health emergencies such as infectious disease outbreaks, healthy living, health-related technology, blood safety and basic occupational health services. The participants may cooperate in a variety of ways - through joint studies, workshops and seminars, research and information exchanges, exchange of experts, or any other means mutually agreed to.
Minister Dosanjh said that Canada and China are already cooperating on a number of health-related fronts, but that the formal signing of the plan of action would have the effect of adding impetus and broadening those areas of mutual cooperation. He noted, for instance, that the plan would provide greater opportunities for an exchange of officials to learn more from each other on pandemic planning, adding that officials from the Public Health Agency of Canada will visit China and other nearby countries in April as part of a "scoping mission" to examine how best to collaborate on emerging infectious diseases.
"We can each be better positioned to head off and control the spread of infectious diseases by working collaboratively and cooperatively," he said.
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