Low carbon, health care challenges discussed at the Shanghai-Taiwan symposium

Officials, businesses, and experts from Shanghai and Taiwan shared their experiences and knowledge on low carbon, sustainability, and smart health care during a conference in Shanghai on Thursday.

The Shanghai-Taiwan Symposium, founded in 2011 by the Shanghai Government Counselors' Office and Want Daily, a Taiwan-based newspaper, aims to promote interactions and collaboration across the Taiwan Strait.

Peng Chenlei, a member of the Shanghai government's Party group leadership, said Taiwan has gained outstanding expertise in low-carbon environmental preservation and health care industry development. He hoped that the seminar was an opportunity for people on both sides of the Strait to learn from one another and share ideas for innovative solutions to create a more sustainable future.

Zhou Xiwei, vice chairman of Want Want Group, which owns Want Daily, advocated for agriculture promotion as the most "low-cost" and effective strategy to cut carbon emissions and achieve sustainability. He stated that Taiwan and Shanghai, particularly Chongming Island, have enormous potential for cooperation in this area.

Wang Xiangrong, a Shanghai government advisor, sorted through experiences of green transformation in other megacities around the world and advised Shanghai to develop people-oriented plans that incorporate efforts from all aspects to implement precise management to continue improving urban environmental governance.

According to He Ping of the Shanghai Shenkang Hospital Development Center, the development of smart hospitals requires coordination between the government, hospitals, and enterprises, as well as hospitals continuing to innovate and explore to offer higher-quality medical services to the public.

Xu Ming, an assistant professor at Taiwan Yang Ming Chiao Tung University, said intelligent technology can help in medical diagnosis, doctor-patient communication, streamlining administration, optimizing service processes, and increasing efficiency, but it must still overcome challenges such as data security and privacy protection to better serve the people.