Ladies and gentlemen.
Welcome to the opening of China Family Health Conference.
China has made great achievements in the area of health promotion and health education.
Indeed, it has also made great achievements in the development of healthy settings, and Healthy Cities is now an action area in the Healthy China Action Plan for 2030.
We have a very strong foundation and decades of history of working for health improvement in China.
In this, the contribution of the Family Health Conference is extremely important.
The family is the incubator for the future health of the next generation. Young children learn both from the protective, as well as from the risk factors, that their parents expose them to: what education they are given; what examples that they are given through parents who adopt healthy behavior, or who smoke, or who drink. Are they exposed to caring or are they exposed to violence?
Indeed, it is also important in modern China to ask ourselves, what is a family? How many people are living as single mothers or fathers? How many children are now living separated because their parents have moved to the city in search of jobs?
What is the family in the rural area where an old woman has now been left alone as all her children and families have moved out? What is the role of the family, both nuclear and extended, in promoting Healthy China by 2030?
These are all valid questions and you are building on a long tradition of work in the field. I look forward to the results of your discussions. I know that this would be of interest and be worthy of dissemination to other countries.
WHO remains completely committed to Healthy China 2030 and to the collaboration with you on communicating the results of your Conference.
Thank you for your attention and best wishes for your meeting.