Interview: Ethiopian Health Minister commends strong medical partnership with China
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E-mail Xinhua, October 1, 2020
ADDIS ABABA, Sept. 30 (Xinhua) -- Ethiopian Health Minister Lia Tadesse on Wednesday commended the strong medical partnership with China.
Speaking exclusively to Xinhua, Tadesse said the medical partnership with China has helped the east African country effectively fight several health challenges.
"The government of China has been supporting different Ethiopian government health programs like maternal and child health, tuberculosis, HIV and other public health programs for many years in collaboration with the Ministry of Health," said Tadesse.
She said the medical partnership with China extends to the construction of state-of-the-art medical facilities free of charge by the Chinese government.
"We have state-of-the-art hospital named Tirunesh Beijing Hospital in Addis Ababa that was built by the government of China around eight years ago which cost around 12.7 million U.S. dollars," she said.
"Even after completion, equipping the hospital and also regularly sending full time Chinese medical specialists and teams to give service has also continued until now," Tadesse told Xinhua.
Tadesse further commended Chinese private investment in Ethiopia's medical sector, which helps knowledge transfer, creation of local job opportunities and overall boosting to the medical sector.
"Expanding local manufacturing of pharmaceuticals has been a big priority in the country and many Chinese organizations have established Chinese manufacturing plants in Ethiopia producing potential medicines and medical supplies which also supported our healthcare system in terms of improving availability of medical supplies," said Tadesse.
She also emphasized the long-standing medical partnership with China, which extends to almost five decades, is expected to further expand in the coming years.
"Improving the quality of health care will be one area that we would like to work on. The other is to improve our medical tourism capacity," she said.
Since early 1970s, China had been dispatching medical teams to Ethiopia, who served in different parts of the country.
The Tirunesh-Beijing Hospital, also known as the Ethio-China Friendship Hospital, located in Akaki neighborhood on the outskirts of Ethiopia's capital Addis Ababa, presently hosts the 21st batch of the Chinese medical team, constituting 16 medical professionals who have specialized in various fields. Enditem
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