July 24 (Xinhua) -- The Ninth International Congress of the World Federation of Public Health Associations will be held in Beijing this September, according to today's China Daily.

Focusing on a theme of "meeting public health challenges in the 21st century," over 1,000 public health officials and experts from all over the world will discuss global health issues including economy, poverty, the environment, disease control, aging, nutrition and reproductive health in the five-day event.

While summing up major public health achievements and problems in the 20th century, participants will also study difficulties, challenges and solutions of future public health problems.

Led by the Ministry of Health, the China Preventive Medicine Association and the China Academy of Preventive Medicine are sponsoring the congress.

The federation chose to have the meeting in China because of the country's great achievements in health care, said Margaret Hilson, president of the federation, who is currently in Beijing inspecting preparations for the congress.

Established in 1967 and based in Geneva, Switzerland, the World Federation of Public Health Associations is a union of various scientific research institutes and associations.

(From China Internet Information Center)