On November 17, the Roundtable on Healthy Cities under the 5th Capital Mayors Forum of CEEC and China was held online. More than 140 people, including health representatives from Beijing, heads of health departments, experts and scholars from cities of Central and Eastern European countries such as Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Hungary, and Greece, attended the meeting.

At the meeting, representatives and well-known experts from Beijing Municipal Health Commission, Beijing Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Beijing Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine and health experts from Central and Eastern European countries delivered speeches on building healthy cities, COVID-19 prevention and control, and the role of traditional Chinese medicine in the fight against COVID-19. They also conducted in-depth exchanges and discussions on health issues of mutual interest. Representatives and experts from Beijing actively introduced the city’s achievements in pandemic prevention through science and technology, and the attendees discussed how to build healthy cities, and enhance exchanges and cooperation between cities and medical institutions on health in the post-COVID era.

Attendees all agreed on the importance of openness and cooperation, especially amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Beijing and Central and Eastern European countries have reached broad consensus on the routine COVID-19 response and the role of traditional Chinese medicine in pandemic prevention and control. They looked forward to promoting more pragmatic cooperation in the field of health care through the Capital Mayors Forum.

The Capital Mayors Forum of CEEC and China is the only institutional and regional multilateral city-to-city event Beijing has organized outside the country. Since its inception in 2016, the forum has played a unique role in expanding exchanges between Beijing and cities in Central and Eastern European countries and implementing the “Belt and Road” initiative at the subnational level. The theme of this forum is “Join Hands to Fight the Epidemic and Promote Resilient Cooperation”. As one of the parallel events of the forum, the Roundtable on Healthy Cities aims to discuss the building of healthy cities in the context of routine COVID-19 response based on the theme of the forum.

(Reporter: Zhang Shiqi)