(April 4th at the Federal Ministry of Health )
Your Excellency Dr. Haitham Mohamed Ibrahim Awadallah, Acting Federal Minister of Health,
Distinguished Dr. Hanadi Haydar Hassan, Director General of Global Health,
Ladies and gentlemen, Friends,
Ramadan Kareem.
Greetings to all. It is a great pleasure to join you at this ceremony of signing the protocol on a new Chinese medical assistance team to Sudan and handing over medical equipment donated by the Chinese government. First of all, on behalf of the Chinese Embassy in Sudan, I wish to express hearty appreciation to the Federal Ministry of Health of Sudan for its efforts to hold this event.
China and Sudan enjoy a long-lasting friendship, and healthcare cooperation between the two sides is the best epitome of our deep friendship. As we all know, China sent its first medical assistance team here in 1971. In the ensuing five decades, all team members are dedicated to rendering good medical services. With superb medical skills and noble medical ethics, medical professionals from China are warmly received by people from various sectors in Sudan and have their image engraved upon the heart of Sudanese people. So far, a total of 1,065 medical personnel of 36 medical assistance teams have been dispatched to Sudan. They have provided medical services for 8.27 million sick people, including over 300,000 hospitalized patients, and conducted nearly 220,000 operations. Their endeavors have filled in several gaps in medical science for Sudan. In 2016 and 2018, the medical assistance team, together with well-known ophthalmologists from China, launched the “Brightness Action” program twice in Sudan, benefiting more than 1,300 local cataract patients and winning high praise from the Sudanese society. With concrete actions and perspiration, they have lived up to the team’s reputation as a force that never flinches in adversity and dedicates itself to saving lives with compassion and love. What’s more, they have acted as the envoy in people-to-people exchanges between our two countries. Taking advantage of their wisdom and talent, they brought rich history and culture of China to the Sudanese people, enabling them to feel the diversity and glamor of the profound Chinese civilization. They have made a very positive contribution to closer people-to-people ties.
Since the outbreak of COVID-19, China and Sudan have pulled together and reached out to each other to fight the coronavirus. To assist Sudan in containing the virus, a 20-member Chinese medical expert group was dispatched to Sudan. China was the first to send such a group here and the first to provide Sudan with COVID-19 vaccine assistance through the bilateral channel. 250,000 doses of vaccines and 22 batches of anti-epidemic supplies are China’s strong support for Sudan’s fight against COVID-19. Members of the Chinese medical assistance team also devoted all their efforts on the forefront to local epidemic prevention and control through sharing China’s good practices in fighting COVID-19. Their courage and responsibility show the very best of the medical profession. Going forward, China will continue to support Sudan’s battle against the disease by providing more vaccine assistance to meet the country’s vaccine needs as much as possible.
Furthermore, China-Sudan medical cooperation has been further elevated to higher levels in recent years. In addition to the existing three friendship hospitals – in Omdurman, Abu Ushar and Damazin –, the mechanism of pairing up Chinese and Sudanese hospitals was implemented between the First Affiliated Hospital of Xi’an Jiaotong University and the Omdurman friendship hospital as a key platform for closer bilateral exchange and cooperation in the spheres of public health, infectious disease control, medical infrastructure, medical personnel training and capability building. As part of our cooperation under this mechanism, the first batch of medical equipment worth 224,000 US dollars donated by the Chinese government will be handed over to Sudan’s Federal Ministry of Health today. I sincerely hope that the equipment, a gift representing the Chinese people’s deep feelings toward the people of Sudan, will be helpful for Sudan in a time of urgent need in improving its capacity for public health governance. I also hope the donation will make Sino-Sudan friendship even stronger.
Standing at a new historical starting point, let’s take the signing of this protocol as an opportunity to build on the good momentum and work together to write a new chapter of China-Sudan friendship in the second five decades. I think this will inject sustained momentum into medical cooperation between the two sides, and open up broader space for building the China-Sudan community of health.
Thank you.