President Hu Jintao met with Margaret Chan, the newly-elected World Health Organization chief, in Beijing Friday, vowing to support her work and strengthen cooperation with the WHO.

 

Hu congratulated Chan on her successful election as director-general of the WHO, and spoke highly of the role the organization had played in promoting public health and cooperation worldwide.

 

Hu said China and the WHO had cooperated well in health awareness campaigns, the prevention of infectious diseases, and the advocacy of traditional medicine.

 

The cooperation had improved the Chinese medicare system, and contributed to world health, Hu added.

 

He hoped that Margaret Chan would use her professional skill to serve the WHO to the best of her ability and bring health and happiness to people around the world.

 

Margaret Chan vowed to do her best and push the WHO to better serve the peoples of the world.

 

Chan, former health chief of China's Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, was elected unopposed as next WHO director-general on November 9.

 

She received 150 votes in support, well over the two-thirds majority needed at a special session of the agency's governing World Health Assembly in Geneva.

 

Chan, 59, joined the WHO in 2003 and has served as the agency's top official for influenza pandemics and as assistant director-general for communicable diseases. She is expected to take up her new position in January of 2007 for a five-year term.

 

(Xinhua News Agency December 1, 2006)