Vietnam and Mexico have pledged to open more acupuncture training and treatment centres in Mexico following a recent bilateral agreement on acupuncture cooperation for the 2013-16 period.

The two sides also agreed to boost activities of two alternative medical centres named after the late President Ho Chi Minh in Mexico City and Monterrey.

The document was signed in Mexico City between Director of Vietnam’s Central Acupuncture Hospital Nghiem Huu Thanh and Secretary General of the Workers’ Party of Mexico (PT) Alberto Anaya Gutierrez during Director Thanh’s visit from October 14-18.

While hailing efforts and skills of Vietnamese doctors who have been working in Mexico, Alberto Anaya Gutierrez said he shared Dr. Thanh’s view that the acupuncture centres in Mexico have contributed to increasing understanding about Vietnam’s people and land in the world and enriching cooperation between the PT and the Communist Party of Vietnam and the two peoples.

According to Dr. Nghiem Huu Thanh, there are three acupuncture centres in Mexico all named after President Ho Chi Minh. Two of them are established under agreements between the Central Acupuncture Hospital and the PT and the other between the Vietnamese hospital and Zacatecas University.

Over the past 12 years, more than 100 Vietnamese doctors and interpreters have been working in the three centres, which provided treatment to about 500,000 Mexican patients.

In addition, 25 Mexican doctors got master degrees on acupuncture.-VNA