On 19 January 2021, SCO Secretary-General Vladimir Norov met with Tianjin Mayor Liao Guoxun during his visit to the city. They discussed the development of vocational training, traditional medicine and telemedicine.
Vladimir Norov pointed out that the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation had become an effective platform for joint efforts against the COVID-19 pandemic. The SCO states are giving priority attention to strengthening cooperation in healthcare and are ready to comprehensively coordinate emergency response measures in public health and epidemiology and to promote their scientific and technological cooperation in these fields.
The SCO Secretary-General emphasised the importance of stronger cooperation in these spheres for dealing with the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic, protecting lives, and restoring the stability of the global economy and ensuring its sustainable growth.
Vladimir Norov mentioned his recent visit to the Tianjin Vocational Education Centre, one of China's best institutions training highly skilled workers.
Mayor Liao Guoxun spoke about the potential of Tianjin, a large coastal city with a population of over 15 million, the largest coastal city in Northern China and one of the four municipalities directly administered by the central government. Tianjin has become a research base for promoting industrial development and a showcase financial and transportation area. The mayor added that the city administration was working to turn Tianjin into an innovation city with a high level of industrial modernisation and a highly developed internal market.
Liao Guoxun highlighted the city's potential in the fields of vocational training, the digital economy, traditional medicine and telemedicine. He added that traditional Chinese medicine was the city's specialty that played a major role in combating the coronavirus infection. The city has a strong academic basis in this sphere, as well as in telemedicine.
Upon the conclusion of the meeting, the officials expressed mutual interest in discussing broader cooperation between the SCO countries and Tianjin and agreed to hold a videoconference on telemedicine in Tianjin this year.