On 28 July 2021, SCO Deputy Secretary-General Zhang Haizhou attended the SCO Forum on Traditional Chinese Medicine held in Nanchang, capital of east China's Jiangxi Province, at the invitation of China's SCO Committee on Good-Neighbourliness, Friendship and Cooperation and the National Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine.
On the morning of 29 July, a delegation of the SCO Secretariat, ambassadors and other diplomatic representatives of the SCO countries in China, as well as senior officials of the Jiangxi Province administration visited the Museum of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) at Jiangxi University, Huajun Jianzhong Corporation, and the Science and Technology Exposition for Traditional Chinese Medicine of the Nanchang TCM Scientific and Technological Innovation City, where they learned about TCM history, various TCM methods and applications, ways to prepare traditional medicine, as well as innovative automated facilities producing medicines under TCM recipes.
Remarks at the forum's opening ceremony were delivered by Liu Qi, Secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Jiangxi Provincial Committee and Chair of the Standing Committee of the People's Congress of Jiangxi Province, and Shen Yueyue, Deputy Chair of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress of China and General Secretary of China's SCO Committee on Good-Neighbourliness, Friendship and Cooperation. Other speakers, who addressed the forum online and offline, included Deputy Prime Minister of thee Kyrgyz Republic Zhyldyz Bakashova, First Deputy Prime Minister of the Republic of Belarus Nikolai Snopkov, member of the Party Leadership Group of the National Health Commission and Secretary of the Party Leadership Group of the National Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine Yu Yanhong, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Tajikistan to China Saidzoda Zohir Ozod, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan to China Javid Ahmad Qaem, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Armenia to China Sergey Manassarian, Minister-Counsellor of the Embassy of the Russian Federation in China Ivan Zhelokhovtsev, and Deputy Director-General of the World Health Organisation (WHO) Zsuzsanna Jakab.
In the process of making his remarks SCO Deputy Secretary-General Zhang Haizhou pointed out that the forum was being held in Jiangxi for the second time, which he said is proof of the historical role the province has been playing in TCM development since ancient times. It was in Jiangxi that the oldest medical artefact was discovered and turned out to be of exceptional importance for studying the traditional methods of treatment and processing of medical raw materials.
"The Beijing Declaration, which was adopted at the WHO Congress on Traditional Medicine on 8 November 2008, noted the contribution to public health made by traditional health practitioners during the past millennia, especially at the level of primary care," Zhang Haizhou added.
Those at the forum recognised the benefits and effectiveness of traditional medicine supplied to many countries within the framework of mutual assistance against COVID-19. They also agreed that the SCO member states should continue to build up cooperation in this sphere.