A delegation consisting of 13 senior African government officials visited a Shanghai-based pharmaceutical company on Wednesday, calling for further cooperation with China in anti-malaria drugs.

The delegation includes Comoros Vice President Caabi El-Yachroutu Mohamed and Bience Gawanas, commissioner for social affairs of African Union.

After visiting the Shanghai Fosun Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd, members of the delegation said Africa would enhance cooperation with Chinese pharmaceutical companies so as China can provide African people with more efficient anti-malaria drugs.

They also called on Chinese pharmaceutical companies to set up branches in African continent for medicine production.

Malaria, carried and transmitted by mosquitoes, causes more deaths than AIDs every year in Africa, said Jotham Musinguzi, an official from Uganda Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development.

China will, in the next three years, increase its assistance to developing countries, African countries in particular, by providing them with anti-malaria drugs and other medicines and helping them set up and improve medical facilities and train medical staffs.

(Xinhua News Agency November 3, 2005)