Jozi to host Shanghai delegation
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Johannesburg Member of the Mayoral Committee (MMC) for Health Councillor Nonceba Molwele will this week host a high-powered health delegation from the Shanghai Municipal People’s Government in China to explore areas of possible cooperation between the health departments of the two cities.
The six-person delegation – led by Han Weijun, Deputy Director-General of the Shanghai Municipal Commission of Health and Family Planning – will, among other things, visit Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital in Diepkloof and Chiawelo Clinic in Soweto.
The objective of the two-day visit – which starts on Wednesday July 8 – is, according to Han, to “promote substantial cooperation in medical care, public health, prevention and control of infectious diseases, and Chinese traditional medicine …”
The other members of the Shanghai city delegation are Dr Qu Jieming, President of RuiJin Hospital at the Shanghai Jiao Tong University’s School of Medicine; Dr Zhou Hua, President of Shuguang Hospital at the Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine; Dr Liu Zhongmin, President of the Shanghai East Hospital; Dr Gu Jianying, Vice-President of Zhongshan Hospital at Fudan University; and Zhou Shanshan, Director of the General Office of the Shanghai Municipal Bureau of Senior Officials’ Healthcare.
The City of Johannesburg will be represented by MMC Molwele; Dr Refik Bismilla, Executive Director: Health; Joe Shikwambane, Deputy Director: Health and Social Development; Bheki Sibeko, Director: Internal Policy Planning and Research; and other officials.
During the visit, MMC Molwele will give a talk on political, environmental and socioeconomic challenges facing the City of Johannesburg and its plans to address them. Dr Bismilla will give an overview of health facilities and priorities, as well as public health programmes in the City. Sibeko, who is coordinating the visit, said the City of Johannesburg was hoping to learn from one of the fastest developing cities in the world.
“The visit will not only help to forge city-to-city ties but will also assist to strengthen people-to-people relations,” Sibeko said.
