New motorbikes are making life easier for village doctors in Tibet who previously had to make house calls on horseback or after trekking across hills.

Providing the motorbikes for doctors in Panam County, 250 kilometres southwest of Lhasa in the Tibet Autonomous Region, is only a small part of the Panam Rural Development Project conducted between China and the European Union (EU), according to the EU-China News which is published by the EU Delegation to China.

The Panam project, which started in 1991 and ends this December, has focused on improving education, health and rural water supplies, Yi Xiaolin, an officer from the EU delegation responsible for the Panam project, told China Daily.

Panam, a region of harsh seasons at high altitude, does not abound with employment opportunities.

Farmers raise livestock mainly for fuel, through the burning of their manure in household stoves. The subsequent lack of fertilizer has left farmers' soil barely fertile, according to Yi.

Thanks to the Panam project, scientists have helped local farmers develop solar stoves which can be used for cooking and fuel, freeing up the manure for use on the fields.

The Panam project is just one example of EU-China co-operation.

To mark the 30th anniversary of bilateral relations, a China-EU forum on scientific and technological strategy will open today.

The forum is sponsored by China's Ministry of Science and Technology, the European Commission Directorate-General for Research and the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, which currently holds the EU presidency.

Over the past 30 years, China and the EU have conducted scientific co-operation in many fields, such as agriculture, natural resources, environment, space and aviation, energy resources, information technology and communications, Vice-Minister of Science and Technology Shang Yong said.