Ambassador: Dominica seeks to boost ties with China in healthcare

Dominica is expecting to expand cooperation with China in healthcare sectors, said Martin Charles, the Dominican ambassador to China.

He said he hoped that before the end of the year, there would be a memorandum of understanding signed between Dominica and the First Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University, so that both parties could provide good healthcare service to the Dominican people in the future.

About 20 to 30 percent of the population of the country suffers from some non-communicable diseases such as hypertension, diabetes and heart diseases.

"We hope to have some medical professionals from China come to Dominica to share their expertise with our professionals in Dominica, and by extension, work at our newly constructed hospital," he said, adding that the construction of the new hospital is almost complete.

"We expect some of our professionals will be able to come to the First Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University, to get training...so that they can go back to Dominica and offer their medical services," he added.

He made his remarks at a news conference in Guangzhou earlier this week after undergoing a surgery to cure myocardial infarction in Guangzhou, capital city of Guangdong province, earlier. Wu Dexi, a cardiologist from the hospital, said the surgery was successful.

Dominica has benefited tremendously from many bilateral cooperations with China, particularly in agriculture, infrastructure, information technology, education, science and technology, health and housing industries, in recent years, Charles said.

The Caribbean country that established diplomatic relations with China in 2004 has achieved its progress in the development of its infrastructure, education and housing industries with the help from China in the past 15 years, he said.

Li Xiangmiao contributed to this story.