The three-day Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Youth Technology and Innovation Forum kicked off on May 21. Mr. Zhang Lirong, Secretary-General of China Forum at the Center for International Security and Strategy, Tsinghua University, was invited to attend the opening ceremony of the forum and the Parallel Session on People’s Health, at which he gave a keynote speech entitled “Promoting International Cooperation in Health and Innovation in the Normalization Stage of COVID-19 Prevention and Control” from the perspectives of healthcare, technology and innovation, SCO and economic globalization.

The pandemic has exposed the constraints of the global public health governance system, which requires us to strengthen international cooperation towards a shared health community for humankind, Zhang Lirong said. On top of the traditional areas of cooperation, there is a strong potential for future cooperation among SCO member states in digital economy, green development, modern agriculture and cross-border e-commerce.

China has and will continue to be an advocate for win-win international relations and economic globalization, he noted. Particularly, its Global Development Initiative has highlighted the significance of joint, people-centered, and coordinated development. Public health is one of the fundamental safeguards for social stability, and as we enter the normalization stage of outbreak prevention and control, we will be calling for greater technological innovation.

Also among the speakers were Karthik Bharadwaj, principle clinical geneticist, Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology, India; Wen Mingang, vice president, Southern Medical University, China; Ahmet Uludağ, co-founder, Next Genetic Center, Turkey; Zhu Yanmei, executive director, BGI Group; and Gulzhanat Aimagambetova, professor, School of Medicine, Nazarbayev University, Kazakhstan.