Reshaping global public health

CHINA’S Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is considered one of the largest global infrastructure development strategies in our lifetime, with nearly 70 countries and international organisations joining forces to improve trade and economic development and promote inter-regional connectivity.

Announced in 2013, the BRI is not just an economic development strategy – it also strives to achieve trade, infrastructure, financial, policy and people-to-people connectivity in order to create multilayered and multilateral partnerships among the countries.

Thus, this initiative is rapidly growing into a global undertaking.

The health sector plays an essential part in the BRI, where the Health Silk Road (HSR) concept was mentioned by the Chinese Health Authority in 2015.

In 2016, Beijing and the World Health Organisation signed a memorandum of understanding with each other to support HSR and enhance health outcomes in BRI participant countries. With the development of HSR, the BRI could provide greater support for universal healthcare around the world.

Although the primary aim of BRI relates to trade, the initiative has multiple implicit impacts on global health too.

Due to the unexpected outbreak of coronavirus in Wuhan, China, HSR aims to provide an increasingly vital policy framework for China to boost and reform its foreign medical aid system, increase its influence in global and regional health governance as well as expand its direct BRI investment to cover basic public health investment.

This concept not only helps promote the building of a global public health system, but also helps improve economic and social development in those BRI participant nations.

Since the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, the HSR concept initiated in 2015 has taken on new meaning.

The pandemic has once again proved the weaknesses of public health systems and infrastructure in both developed and developing countries.

For instance, the supply of basic personal protective equipment such as surgical face masks, gloves, medical goggles, medical shoe and head covers, protective garments and respirators were insufficient as the unexpected rise of coronavirus cases overburdened healthcare facilities.

Therefore, BRI intends to build up a resilient global healthcare system to improve and upgrade public healthcare around the world. Today, Chinese Covid-19 vaccines have been asserted as having the largest market share in the regions of Asia and South America.

The development of BRI aims to facilitate the transfer and production of healthcare technologies and medical tools for initiative partners.

Countries, especially smaller developing economies, rely on imported goods and services to provide for their healthcare needs as there is a general lack of medical knowledge, as well as having limited local production capacity in medical technology.

China has made use of BRI transportation networks such as ports, airports, railroads and logistics hubs to supply healthcare and medical assistance to partner countries through the HSR.

This leads to a situation where there will be easy access to medicine supplies for partners involved. As a result, China is able to enlarge its role in supplying medical products and devices and enhance its reputation.

At the same time, China has increased its support for the World Health Organisation, where Beijing claims to have obtained leadership in regional and global health governance through HSR.

China looks forward to expanding its role in regional and global medical supply chains by investing in the HSR. In smaller developing countries that face limited manufacturing capabilities of basic protective products, China may extend its investment in the manufacturing of these products in developing countries, mainly within industrial parks built under the BRI.

In this regard, this will maintain China as an important player in global medical supply chains, as well as create more job opportunities, boost trade and increase economic growth in that particular country.

The BRI provides a common platform for sharing pandemic information, exchanging preventive and interventional strategies, as well as training health professionals to manage regional public health emergencies effectively.

Moving toward building a self-sufficient healthcare system, China has agreed to strengthen regional cooperation in science and technology by establishing joint research collaboration centres to help improve development and access to resources for global health.

In addition, South-East Asia will be a key region where China promotes HSR and where more health cooperation projects will be carried out bilaterally between countries. China should prioritise investments in healthcare training and basic public health infrastructure development to provide greater assistance to developing countries.

Leveraging on the HSR, health personnel and scientific and technological exchange and cooperation can mutually benefit health professionals and specialists from both sides.

China’s BRI could facilitate unprecedented levels of environmental justice for the betterment of health. The BRI provides a consistent mechanism to create a stronger and more resilient health system and improve its multilayered partnerships with BRI participant countries and international organisations.

The rise in mutual and bilateral investment and cooperation in healthcare between China and other BRI countries shows the increasing significance of China’s market, capital and technological growth in global health.

This will improve its image and reflect the growth of China’s capacity. Moreover, the Chinese government has also agreed to increase regional cooperation in the areas of disability rehabilitation, maternal and child health, and major infectious diseases, such as tuberculosis, cancer, HIV etc.

The future development of the HSR requires international cooperation among the countries of the world. HSR is set to further improve China’s role in universal health governance in order to advance health security and strengthen health systems for any future crises.

KHOO ZHENG YING is a lecturer at Tunku Abdul Rahman University College. The views expressed here are entirely the writer’s own.

The SEARCH Scholar Series is a social responsibility programme jointly organised by the Southeast Asia Research Centre for Humanities (SEARCH) and the Centre of Business and Policy Research, Tunku Abdul Rahman University College (TAR UC), and co-organised by the Association of Belt and Road Malaysia.