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A forum to help boost Africa’s public health systems in the post-Ebola era and also strengthen Africa-China cooperation ended in Pretoria, South Africa, on Tuesday with a declaration by the Chinese government to build 100 hospitals and clinics across Africa over the next three years.

The meeting was the second Ministerial Forum of China-Africa Health Development. It held in Cape Town earlier this week and was attended by health ministers from several African countries.

"One of the offers made by China was to build 100 hospitals and clinics on the continent. This was welcomed by African health ministers because many of our countries have poor facilities,” said Yogan Pillay, a deputy director general at the national health department.Deputy Director General of HIV, TB and Women and Child Health Department, Dr Yogan Pillay.

The health ministers pledged to advocate for an international response system to manage future pandemics such as the Ebola Virus Disease that ravaged Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone in West Africa last year. The first forum of health ministers from Africa and China was held in Beijing in 2013.  

The forum is committed to forge bilateral partnerships to ensure access to high-quality health care systems, vaccines, medical devices and diagnostics on the African continent.

South African Minister of Health, Dr Aaron Motsoaledi, said, “Learning from the EVD [Ebola Virus Disease] crisis, Chinese and African leaders in the health sectors fully support a new, well-funded, and functional international response system to manage future pandemics.”

The World Health organization (WHO) has welcomed the China-Africa cooperation on developing Africa's health care system. WHO said in an earlier statement: “The Ebola outbreak provided context for conversations on health systems and building African health capacity. China provided $120-million in Ebola aid and deployed nearly 1 000 medical workers to affected areas.”

In its growing role as a major global supplier of vaccines, China recently made a $5 million commitment to Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance. The Vaccine Alliance has supported the immunisation of over half a billion children in developing countries.