Two major Chinese conferences on Global Health

Report by Dr. Rohan H Wickramasinghe

Two important conferences relating to global health matters were held in Ningbo City, Zhejiang Province, People’s Republic of China, on Wednesday 9th June 2021. They were the 2nd Global Health Industry Cooperation Conference (GHICC2021) and the China-CEEC Summit for Healthcare Industry Cooperation (n.b. CEEC denotes ‘Central and Eastern European Countries’). The present account relates principally to the first-named conference.

The writer was invited as a ‘VIP participant’ but was unable to attend on-site due to personal reasons. This was a huge disappointment in view of the importance of the topics set out in the Agenda as being scheduled to be discussed and the renowned persons due to participate and speak. Over 500 persons were participants, either on-site or on-line. The writer followed the proceedings of the Conference on-line and is most grateful to Zheng Xiongwei of APCEO and his Assistant, Fiona Qi, for sending him material relating to the conference. (The writer, however, takes responsibility for any errors or misunderstandings in this report. These are largely attributable to problems in taking notes while following on-line presentations.)

APCEO

The present account is perhaps best introduced by a few words regarding the organization APCEO or Asia Pacific CEO Worldwide, which was launched in the early 1990s by leading Asia-Pacific economists to further economic cooperation.

APCEO was the prime mover in the organization of the two conferences referred to earlier. It is headed by the internationally renowned economist, Zheng Xiongwei and, while it is primarily based in Beijing, presently has co-headquarters or executive offices in the United States, China, Australia, Canada and France. It has the goodwill and support of leading politicians and other renowned persons around the world. (Presidents, Prime Ministers, Ministers and members of business and academic communities of leading countries are among the many persons of standing who have at various times expressed their interest in and support for the work and projects undertaken by APCEO.)

It is impractical (for reasons of space, among others) to do justice in this discussion of the many activities of APCEO. One activity is the organization and holding of Summit Conferences in various important and diverse areas of human activity. While it is not necessary to list all the Summit Conferences APCEO has organized (or been a major partner in organizing or supporting), mention of a few of them will be of interest to readers:

1) The World Emerging Industries Summit (WEIS) programme was launched in 2009 by APCEO. The first Summit was held in China in 2010. WEIS has, to date, gone through four seasons.

2) The first International Culture Industry Summit (ICIS) was held in September 2012. Zheng Xiongwei delivered the Jiayuguan Declaration of the ICIS on that occasion.

3) The 6th Global Outsourcing Summit (GOS) on ‘Economic Globalization – Outsourcing or Insourcing?’ was held in Wuxi, Jiangsu Province from the 14th to 16th June 2013.

4) The 5th Global Economic Leaders Summit (GELS2017) Belt and Road Forum for Economic Cooperation and Trade was held in Changchun City, Jilin Province from 30th August to 2nd September 2017. APCEO Worldwide was one of the two International Co-sponsors while the sponsor in China was the Jilin Provincial Government.

5) The 1st Global High-End Manufacturing Summit (GHMS2019) was co-sponsored by APCEO on 13th to 16th May 2019 at Changsha City, Hunan Province.

Global Healthcare Industry Cooperation Conferences (GHICC)

There have, to date, been two GHICC. The first in 2020 and the other in 2021.

a) 2020 GHICC – Leaders on-line video summit was held in Hang Zhou, Zhejiang Province on the 8th June 2020. The Conference was hosted by the People’s Government of Zhejiang Province and organized by APCEO, the Department of Commerce of Zhejiang Province and the Health Commission of Zhejiang Province.

The event saw the participation of approximately 300 people of more than 61 countries and regions from the Fortune Global 500, Forbes Global 2000, Global Health Industry Top 100, Global top 100 industrial investors, National Academies of Science, world famous universities, emerging enterprises in the health industry, state-owned enterprises in China, China’s top 500 enterprises and other well-known enterprises in China’s health industry. National health departments of Switzerland, Germany and other countries sent letters of congratulation.

b) GHICC 2021 (or 2nd Global Health Industry Cooperation Conference) and the China-CEEC Summit for Healthcare Industry Cooperation were held in Ningbo City, Zhejiang Province on Wednesday 9th June 2021 under the theme ‘Health driving to connect the world’. (n.b. The latter conference follows a proposal by President Xi Jinping on Friday 9th February 2021 at the China-CEEC Summit.)

The sponsors of this Conference were the National Medical Products Administration of the PRC and the People’s Government of the PRC. The organizers were the Department of Commerce of Zhejiang Province, Health Commission of Zhejiang Province, Zhejiang Medical Products Administration, China Chamber of Commerce for Import and Export of Medicines and Health Products (CCCMHPIE) and APCEO.

Prior to the opening ceremony a video was presented of Zhejiang Province

Part One of the Conference was the Opening Ceremony with remarks by representatives of 1) Government of Zhejiang Province, 2) National Medical Products Administration of the PRC, 3) Ministry of Commerce of the PRC, 4) Ambassadors of Central and Eastern European Countries and 5) Suzanne Kurz, Global Vice Chairperson of APCEO and former President of the Federal Council of Austria. This was followed by the launching ceremony of China-CEEC Cooperation for Public Health Industry.

Part Two of the Conference consisted of Theme Speeches which included ‘Progress on Chinese Drug Regulation and its Internationalization and Technicalization’.

Speakers included 1) Qin Xiaoling, Director-General of the Department of Science, Technology and International Cooperation, National Medical Products Administration (NMPA) of the PRC, ‘Details on Procedures and Regulations’, 2) Su Tie, Deputy Commissioner and Member of CPC Party Committee of Ningbo Customs District, ‘Smart Customs, Smart Borders and Smart Connectivity for in-depth international cooperation’, and 3) Shi Shengyi, Vice-President of China National Pharmaceutical Group Corporation, ‘Promoting International Cooperation against the Pandemic and building a Global Community of Health for All’.

Part Three of the Conference concerned Industrial Cooperation. It commenced with the presentation by Mr. Zheng Xiongwei of APCEO of ‘Release of 2021 Global Healthcare Industry Cooperation Information’. This Part was organized under two topics:

Topic One: ‘Accelerating International Cooperation to Promote the Development of the Health Industry’

Presentations were made by 1) Annette Nijs, Global Vice-Chairperson of APCEO, Recipient of the Friendship Award of the Chinese Government, Former State Secretary for Education, Culture and Science of the Netherlands, 2) Professor Atta-ur-Rahman, University of Karachi, Academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, 3) Helen Zhu, Vice-President of Sanofi China, 4) Wang Qian, Global Vice-President and Managing Director of SAP China and 5) Elina Yu Jia, Head, Life Sciences and Health Care, Business Vertical Head, APAC, Tata Consultancy Svcs.

Topic Two: ‘Cooperation Dialogue on Health Industry Chain’

The Panelists in this discussion were 1) John Aquilina, Ambassador of Malta to the PRC, 2) Helen Zhu, 3) Elina Yu Jia, 4) Wang Qian, 5) Rocky Zhang, Vice-President of Textron China and 6) Jack Yuan, CEO of General China Insurance Co. Ltd.

Topic Two was followed by a Panel Discussion moderated by Guan Yunpeng, Deputy Director of the Department of International Cooperation of CCCMHPIE. The Panelists in this discussion were 1) Dong Geng, Assistant Director-General on Drug Safety of the Zhejiang Medical Products Administration, 2) Ingus Rozenblats, Commercial Counselor of the Embassy of Latvia in the PRC, 3) Sandia Savic, President of the Association for Pharmacy and Medical Activity, Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Serbia, 4) Liang Bin, President of Gedeon Richter, China, 5) Chen Xiaojing, Vice-President of Novartis China, 6) Yao Chengzhi, Chairman of Ningbo Menovo Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd. and 7) Li Ning, Vice-President of BGI Group and Executive President of BGI Global Development.

A thematic cooperation dialogue followed. It was observed that the Healthcare Industry will be the key industry of Zhejiang Province in the future. Its development environment, policy support, high-quality medical foundation, industrial R+D talents take the leading position in China. Zhejiang is becoming the leading player in the healthcare industry in the world.

The closing moments of the Conference saw matchmaking and signing of key cooperation projects.

The Conference concluded with leaders of Zhejiang Province and State Ministries meeting with important guests.