A medical aid team consisting of 30 Chinese doctors, interpreters and cooks left Lanzhou, capital of northwest China's Gansu Province, Tuesday morning for Madagascar on a two-year medical assistance mission.

The team will first go to Shanghai in east China and will fly for Africa on Nov. 6.

"I'm confident in carrying out my task," said Wang Hongwei, a surgeon from the People's Hospital of Qingyang City. "We studied French for seven months and received other training. I'm confident that I can handle every difficulty that arises."

Like Wang, all the team members came from Gansu Province's medical institutions.

According to an agreement signed between the governments of China and Madagascar, and entrusted by the Chinese Ministry of Health, Gansu Province has sent 14 medical aid teams to Madagascar since 1975, treating 12.7 million patients in Madagascar and neighboring countries.

Thirty-eight Chinese medical workers were awarded Medal of Knight by the government of Madagascar for their devotion and outstanding work in the country, said Zhong Liangting, an official lwith the provincial health bureau, at a ceremony to see off the medical aid team.

China began sending medical aid teams to developing countries in the 1960s.

According to the Ministry of Health, China has sent about 18,000 medical workers to 65 countries and regions worldwide since it sent first to Algeria in 1963, treating 240 million patients.

Currently, there are more than 40 Chinese aid teams working at more than 110 stations across the world.

(Xinhua News Agency November 3, 2004)