Chinese Vice-Premier Liu Guozhong on Monday urged Shanghai Cooperation Organization member states to enhance practical cooperation and promote openness and innovation in the health sector.

Liu, also a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, made the remarks at the opening ceremony of the 8th SCO Health Ministers' Meeting in Xi'an, Shaanxi province, on Monday.

He said the health sector remains a vital area of SCO collaboration, with significant achievements made in strengthening public health security, sharing disease prevention technologies, advancing medical science and technology, and preserving and developing traditional medicine.

Liu called on member states to deepen practical cooperation to jointly develop the health sector and drive medical progress through openness and innovation. He also emphasized the importance of people-to-people exchanges and upholding multilateralism.

During the meeting, senior health officials from SCO member states highlighted the need to integrate digital technologies with medicine to increase equal access to healthcare and accelerate research and innovation.

China's Health Minister Lei Haichao proposed leveraging information technologies and the SCO hospital alliance to build platforms for remote medical cooperation and expand digital health services. He also suggested establishing an SCO innovation center for medical-engineering integration at the First Affiliated Hospital of Xi'an Jiaotong University.

"Through joint R&D platforms and training centers, we aim to enhance original drug development and boost innovation capacity across SCO member states, while promoting cross-border and interdisciplinary collaboration," Lei said.

Punya Salila Srivastava, secretary of India's Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, said India is using digital health tools to bridge healthcare gaps, particularly in remote and underdeveloped areas.

India's digital ecosystem has supported a universal immunization platform to register and track vaccinations for mothers and infants, and contributed to innovations in managing mental health and tuberculosis, she said.

"These efforts align with the SCO's shared goal of strengthening healthcare delivery down to the last mile," she added.

Syed Mustafa Kamal, Pakistan's federal minister of National Health Services, Regulations and Coordination, said the global spread of information and communication technologies offers unprecedented opportunities to improve healthcare access, efficiency and quality.

He proposed creating an SCO digital health task force to harmonize policies on data security, interoperability and ethical use of artificial intelligence, as well as a digital health knowledge hub to share best practices and draft guidelines for AI use in healthcare.

Beyond digital health, the meeting also addressed emergency medicine, traditional medicine and primary healthcare.

China's Health Minister Lei noted that 90.8 percent of households in China can access a medical facility within 15 minutes, and over half of all medical visits now take place at primary-level institutions.

"In 2024, the nation's average life expectancy reached 79 years, ranking among the highest in upper-middle-income countries," Lei said. "The infant mortality rate dropped to four per 1,000 live births and the maternal mortality rate fell to 14.3 per 100,000 — both record lows."

Lei urged further communication and cooperation in primary healthcare to help member states develop tailored approaches to expanding universal health coverage, improving healthcare resource allocation and boosting service efficiency.

Xinhua contributed to this story.