Italy and China have agreed to strengthen their bilateral cooperation in the sector of health and food and nutrition security. Italian Health Minister, Beatrice Lorenzin, had a series of high-level meetings in Beijing during a visit organised by the Italian Embassy in Beijing led by Ambassador Ettore Francesco Sequi. The day’s agenda opened with an Italo-Chinese workshop on health cooperation, after which Ms Lorenzin had a meeting with Minister Zhi Shuping, chairman of the General Administration for Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine (AQSIQ ). In the meeting, several documents were signed: a letter of intent on strengthening bilateral cooperation and two strategic documents for the agrofood industry, including a protocol on citrus fruits and a memorandum of understanding on olive oil. After years of negotiations, the protocol gives fresh Italian citrus produce access to the Chinese market while the MoU on olive oil aims to improve consumer protection and to establish an information exchange on the export of olive oil, in relation to which Italy will provide training to Chinese workers in the industry.
Strengthening bilateral cooperation through two strategic documents on the agrofood sector
The two documents will make a tangible contribution to Italy’s goal of raising its global food exports to 50 billion euros. During the meeting, the ministers discussed bilateral cooperation, with a special focus on issues related to Italian pork, beef and egg products. The talks also covered an inspection visit by Chinese experts to pig farms in northern Italy. Ms Lorenzin then met with Minister Li Bin, the head of the Commission of Health and Family Planning, with whom she took stock of cooperation in the medical, pharmaceutical and nutrition sector, in the training of medical and management staff, as well as in possible pilot projects to be set up in China. The ministers signed an Action Plan for Health Cooperation for the years 2016-2018, which defines the priority areas of bilateral cooperation. These areas include healthcare reforms, measures for the purchase of prescription drugs, preventive medicine, medical services for the elderly, rehabilitation, cancer therapy, traditional Chinese medicine, joint preclinical and clinical research projects and the exchange and training of managers and medical practitioners.
