Online Desk: Congratulating Dr Saima Wazed for being nominated as the next WHO Regional Director for Southeast Asia, Chinese Ambassador to Bangladesh Yao Wen today said it would enhance health cooperation between Beijing and Dhaka.

“Her (Saima) nomination also opens new channels and scopes for enhancing cooperation between China and Bangladesh in health sector,” Yao Wen said.

The envoy said Saima Wazed’s nomination as the next WHO Regional Director for Southeast Asia, which is another contribution made by Bangladesh to safeguarding health of the entire humanity.

The ambassador made the remarks at a Chinese anti-dengue emergency supply handover ceremony.

Saima Wazed, global mental health expert and daughter of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, won the election among the eleven member states of the region.

Her name will now be submitted for appointment by the 154th session of the WHO executive board, which will take place on January 22-27 in 2024, in Geneva, Switzerland.

The Chinese ambassador said, in recent years, the strategic partnership of cooperation between China and Bangladesh has gone even deeper and more profound.

“China has become an important partner of Bangladesh in terms ofeconomic development and beyond,” he said.

The envoy said under the joint guidance of two countries’ leaderships, Bangladesh and China would definitely pool together efforts and fight side by side to win the war against the dengue epidemic, thereby protect the lives and health of the two peoples.

He said Chinese President Xi Jinping, when meeting with Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in Johannesburg, South Africa late this August, announced in person that China would provide to Bangladesh 25 million RMB anti-dengue assistance.

Since then, relevant authorities of the two governments have kept in close communication and cooperated in an efficient manner to ensure the early arrival and timely deployment of the anti-dengue emergency supplies from China.

“The handover ceremony today is not only implementation of the consensus reached between the two leaders, but also another manifestation that China and Bangladesh are genuine friends who share weal and woe and close neighbors who always help each other,” said the ambassador.

Over the past three years, the envoy said, China and Bangladesh have joined hands to fight the COVID-19 epidemic.

“At the beginning of this year, we signed the Implementation Agreement of China-Aid Project of Burn Unit of Chittagong Medical College Hospital in Bangladesh,” he said.

The envoy said, a team of leading medical experts from China came to Bangladesh to introduce the latest clinical technology and know-how and successfully performed surgery on four patients with congenital heart disease.
“In future, China will continue to enhance the cooperation with Bangladesh in the health field and bring more tangible benefits to the people of the two countries,” he added.

Health Minister Zahid Maleque, Health Secretary Md. Jahangir Alam and Director General of DGHS Prof Dr Abul Bashar Mohammed Khurshid Alam, among others, were present.