In 2020, China opened the first Chinese traditional medicine and Acupuncture Centre at Parirenyatwa Group of Hospitals, which has been offering effective and affordable care to thousands of patients in the country.

Health and Child Care Minister, Dr Douglas Mombeshora, yesterday met the Vice Minister of the National Health Commission of China, Dr Yu Xuejun, on the sidelines of the 20th International Inter-Ministerial Conference on South-South and Triangular Cooperation in Population and Development, being held here, to discuss areas of cooperation between the two countries.

Minister Mombeshora expressed appreciation of China’s support to various sectors of the economy as well as the technical support given to the Government, which has largely enhanced the country’s health footprint.

He said there was more that Zimbabwe could learn from  China in harnessing traditional medicines.

“We are also making strides in strengthening traditional medicine and we now have a council to regulate this sector. Most of our traditional medical practitioners have not gone through formal training so we are trying to put in place regulations to make sure that patients are protected,” said Dr Mombeshora.

“We understand you are very advanced in the area of traditional medicines and you have hospitals dealing with traditional medicine and we would like to learn from you how you have managed to get that far,” he added.

Minister Mombeshora commended China’s support on the construction of the National Pharmaceutical Warehouse (NatPharm), one of the largest warehouses in the Southern African region. The project was funded by a Chinese grant of US$22 million and completed and handed over to the Government last year.

Vice Minister of the National Health Commission of China, Dr Yu Xuejun said the bilateral relations between China and Zimbabwe go way back and highlighted four areas of cooperation that needed strengthening.

He said there was a need for more co-operation on the deployment of more Chinese medical teams to Zimbabwe that would contribute to the health and well-being of local people.

Dr Yu said the setting up of their centre at Parirenyatwa was a good beginning for cooperation in this respect.

“Alternative medicine was introduced in China a 100 years ago and before that, all the Chinese people relied on the Chinese traditional medicine to treat the people,” he said.

“We believe that there are many cultural techniques enshrined in Chinese medicine that need to be advocated and to be made more available to other people.”

Dr Yu reaffirmed his country’s commitment to further deepening co-operation in the traditional medicine area with Zimbabwe to contribute more to the health and well-being of the people.

“The second one is the pair hospital co-operation mechanism. I know that the People’s Hospital of China Hunan province has established the pair hospital cooperation mechanism with one of the hospitals in Zimbabwe,” he said, adding that this will provide professional cooperation with each other and help to solve critical problems.

Dr Mombeshora also met UNFPA regional director for East and Southern Africa Ms Lydia Zigomo and discussed the progress the country has made in the areas of family planning and provision of services to women and girls.