Chinese Ambassador Yao Wen on Tuesday handed over some promised dengue test kits to Bangladesh and said the gesture manifested that the two countries were "genuine friends who share weal and woe and close neighbours who always help each other."
The handing-over ceremony took place at the health ministry in the presence of Health Minister Zahid Maleque, Secretary Md Jahangir Alam and DGHS Director General Prof Dr ABM Khurshid Alam.
This year Bangladesh has suffered its severest dengue epidemic in history by far, resulting in the suffering of millions of people and the loss of 1,400 lives. The epidemic is raging and the situation remains challenging.
"I extend my sincerest condolences to the families of the deceased, and salute with highest respect to the doctors and medical workers who have fought day and night on the front against the dengue epidemic," the ambassador said.
"The Chinese government and people are deeply affected by the sufferings of the Bangladeshi people."
He said Chinese President Xi Jinping when meeting with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in Johannesburg, South Africa, in August announced in person that China would provide Bangladesh with 25 million RMB in anti-dengue assistance.
"Since then, relevant authorities of the two governments have kept in close communication and cooperated in an efficient manner to ensure the early arrival and timely deployment of the anti-dengue emergency supplies from China."
"The handover ceremony today is not only implementation of the consensus reached between the two leaders but also another manifestation that China and Bangladesh are genuine friends who share weal and woe and close neighbours who always help each other," he said.
"In recent years, the strategic partnership of cooperation between China and Bangladesh has gone even deeper and more profound.
"China has become an important partner of Bangladesh in terms of economic development and beyond. The foundation of China-Bangladesh relations lies in the people.
"Through increasingly frequent exchanges between all sectors at all levels, the long-established friendship between our two peoples has been consolidated continuously. Among others, health cooperation plays a key role," said the ambassador.
Over the past three years, he said, China and Bangladesh had joined hands to fight the Covid-19 epidemic.
At the beginning of this year, “we signed the Implementation Agreement of China-Aid Project of Burn Unit of Chittagong Medical College Hospital in Bangladesh,” the ambassador noted.
"A team of leading medical experts from China came to Bangladesh to introduce the latest clinical technology and know-how and successfully performed surgery on four patients with congenital heart disease."
Earlier, the Chinese Embassy made a swift response to dengue and donated a batch of dengue kits to Enam Medical College Hospital.
Last week, a cardiovascular disease digital infrastructure pilot site donated by the Chinese Embassy was officially launched at Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University.
In the future, China would continue to enhance the cooperation with Bangladesh in the health field and bring more tangible benefits to the people of the two countries, he said.
"It is my conviction that under the joint guidance of our leaderships China and Bangladesh would definitely pool together efforts and fight side by side to win this people’s war against the dengue epidemic, thereby protecting the lives and health of the two peoples."
