MACAO, July 18 , 2008 -- The Macao Special Administrative Region (SAR) Friday announced that it has requested China's Health Ministry to assign public health experts who will be stationed here and assist works of various health related fields, including epidemic control.

The request was brought up when the SAR's Secretary for Social Affairs and Culture Chui Sai On visited the Ministry earlier this week. Chui offered to invite mainland experts of epidemic control, food safety, chemical and biological attack prevention, etc.

During his time in Beijing, Chui also visited various departments of the central government, seeking to strengthen health and other related cooperation with the Chinese mainland, according to a press statement from the SAR government.

The secretary also signed a memorandum on drug supervision and regulation with the State Food and Drug Administration. According to the memo, the mainland will assist Macao in establishing a drug testing laboratory, providing drug quality standards and pharmaceutical technologies used to examine Chinese and Western medicines, and relevant training of staff.

Meanwhile, Chui also signed a cooperation agreement with the State Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine on the education and research of traditional Chinese medicine.

From July 13 to 16, the secretary led an SAR official delegation that paid visits to different government departments in Beijing and Shanghai.

Chui has met with Shanghai municipal officials and reached a consensus over the cooperation of recruiting doctors in Shanghai and clinical medicine research.