Chinese president meets WHO director-general

BEIJING, Aug. 20 -- President Xi Jinping said Tuesday that China will continue to improve public health and enhance cooperation with the World Health Organization (WHO).

Xi made the remarks while meeting WHO Director-General Margaret Chan in the Great Hall of the People in downtown Beijing.

The Chinese government always prioritizes its people's health and will make unremitting efforts to further implement reform of its public health system, Xi said.

He promised that the Chinese government would continue to effectively distribute public health and medical resources in order to achieve full coverage of basic health services to all Chinese people by 2020.

Xi voiced his appreciation to WHO's support for China's efforts to contain the H7N9 bird flu, noting that the Chinese government will always remain alert to the control of such epidemic diseases, especially when concerning food safety.

China values the significant role played by the WHO and is willing to continue its cooperation with the organization, Xi said.

He expressed his hope that the two sides could work closer to help promote Chinese medicine and medical products into overseas markets, and jointly assist African countries to improve their disease control and public health systems to meet the United Nations Millennium Development Goals.

Praising China's efforts and achievements on public health development, Chan said the WHO highly values China's important role in various multilateral arenas, noting that she firmly believed that the country, working closely with the WHO, would make more contributions to improve global public health conditions.