German-Chinese Co-operation in the area of Rescue Services reaffirmed
The Björn Steiger Foundation and the city of Jieyang sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU)
On 28th March, the Federal Ministry of Health welcomed the Head Mayor of the South Chinese city of Jieyang who was accompanied on his visit by high-ranking representatives of his city’s administration and industry.
The Mayor is a member of the delegation of the Chinese President that is visiting Germany from 28th to 29th March. In the presence of Lutz Stroppe, State Secretary at the Federal Ministry of Health, Pierre-Enric Steiger, President of the non-profit Björn Steiger Foundation and Jieyang’s Head Mayor, Dong Chen, signed a Memorandum of Understanding on co-operation in the field of rescue services. The essence of the Memorandum is the introduction of a comprehensive rescue and emergency service, based on the German model, in Jieyang.
For many years now, co-operation between Germany and China in the area of rescue services and disaster medicine have been among the core topics of our collaboration. In modernising its rescue services, China wishes to draw on German expertise. The Federal Ministry of Health consequently supports the project that the Björn Steiger Foundation and the city of Jieyang wish to commence as early as this summer. The Foundation, on the initiative of which Germany’s modern rescue service was founded in 1969, is a valuable partner in designing, structuring and technically equipping the rescue and emergency medical system.
Background
The Björn Steiger Foundation has developed a master plan for the modernisation and further development of China’s rescue services. The aim is to establish an integrated land and air-based rescue system. Alongside Wuhan in the province of Hubei, where a comparable memorandum was signed in December 2013, Jieyang is already the second Chinese city in which this master plan is to be implemented. Conveying the humanitarian notion that is inseparably associated with the project plays an especially important role for Germany in this co-operation effort.