GX Foundation Holds 4th Anniversary Eye Forum in Beijing: Concluding Impacts with National and International Experts

GX Foundation (GX) held the " Anniversary Eye Forum: GX 4 Years on - Vision Beyond Cataract" in Beijing today (15 September). The forum comprehensively reviewed the achievements of its flagship project, the "Cataract Blindness Elimination Programme," over the past four years. Participants of the event include Chairman of GX Foundation, Vice Chairman of the CPPCC, LEUNG Chun-ying; Director General of Department of International Cooperation (Office of Hong Kong, Macao & Taiwan Affairs), FENG Yong; World Health Organisation (WHO) Representative to China, Martin TAYLOR; Directors and medical team representatives from the Health Commissions of four provinces and regions (Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, Shanxi, Heilongjiang, Fujian Province); representatives from the Lao Ministry of Health; ambassadors from project countries to China; GX’s Board members; Senior Advisor Prof. Dennis LAM Shun-chiu, held in-depth exchanges with government representatives, international organizations, and medical partners from multiple countries, jointly planning the future development of global ophthalmic medicine and international medical humanitarian aid. The latest upgraded Mobile Eye Treatment Centre (METC) was publicly displayed for the first time, which will be first applied in the new project country, Uzbekistan.  

Chairman of GX Foundation, Vice Chairman of the CPPCC, LEUNG Chun-ying, said in his remarks that over the past four years, the Foundation, together with medical teams from Guangxi, Fujian, Shanxi and Heilongjiang, has completed more than 31,000 cataract surgeries, successfully demonstrating that eliminating backlog cataract cases is entirely achievable. GX Foundation is far more than a funding organisation. By sharing technology, expertise and a sustainable mobile healthcare model, it has effectively strengthened local healthcare capacity and put into practice the spirit of people-to-people connectivity under the Belt and Road Initiative.

Over 31,000 Surgeries Completed in Five Countries within Four Years

Since the official launch of "Cataract Blindness Elimination Programme" in Laos in September 2022, GX’s aid has overcome challenges such as quarantine restrictions during COVID-19,  disruption of shipping routes and transport of supplies, and expanded its service to five countries: Laos, Cambodia, Djibouti, Mauritania, and Senegal. Currently, GX has provided free eye screenings for more than 54,222 individuals and completed over 31,300 free surgeries in these five countries. To date, the backlog of cataract cases has been successfully cleared in areas such as Vientiane, Luang Prabang, and Champasak in Laos (completed in May 2025), as well as Prey Veng and Kampong Speu provinces in Cambodia (completed in April 2026), significantly enhancing the ophthalmic medical capabilities of the recipient countries.

Martin Taylor, WHO Representative to China, thanked GX Foundation for its contributions, noting that the collaborative model it has established is vital to the sustained advancement of eye health. He highlighted that the World Health Organization has recently launched a new Global Cataract Initiative to accelerate progress towards the 2030 targets. He also expressed his expectation of continuing to work closely with partners such as GX Foundation to bring together expertise and resources in countries most in need, ensuring that more patients gain access to the cataract surgeries they require.

Present Impacts in Four Key Areas

The forum also published key achievements and effective aid model of the programme over the past four years. First, in terms of clinical quality, the programme maintains a high efficacy while undergoing large numbers of surgeries. According to WHO standards, more than 83.7% surgery recipients achieve ‘good’ visual improvement after surgery, exceeding the global average of 48.2%, and the defect rate is 2.0%, far lower than the international benchmark of 5.0%, demonstrating that GX maintains excellent quality even when facing great challenges in rural regions and complex cases.

Second, in terms of medical equity, female recipients take up to 50.9%, successfully breaking boundaries of low coverage rate of cataract surgery among women globally.

Third, in terms of operational mechanisms and local capacity building, the programme operates in resource-scarce environments, relying on over 200 types of consumables of the global supply chain management, and closely integrates resources from Chinese medical teams, project country governments, Chinese enterprises, and overseas Chinese. The team effectively boosts efficiency and shared burden with the Chinese medical teams by training local staff for community screening; At the same time, eye care was incorporated into universal healthcare coverage (UHC), mandating preoperative blood sugar and blood pressure checks and providing health education. Additionally, the METCs were equipped with 5G networks, enabling monitoring, remote learning, and consultations with international experts during eye checks, leaving local medical resources and technology that cannot be taken away.

Fourth, in terms of strategic vision, GX has proposed practical solutions to WHO’s pain points including insufficient medical resources, long waiting times, high costs, and limited coverage. The successful implementation of the program goes beyond traditional clinical framework of giving out medications and providing medical treatment, demonstrating that international humanitarian aid must shift toward holistic, integrated, and people-oriented model.

Comprehensive hardware upgrade for METC to handle extreme environments

At present, GX has project sites in Southeast Asia and five countries in Africa. To adapt  the extreme climate and complex landscape of our new project country Uzbekistan, GX has undergone a comprehensive technical upgrade based on the eight 40-foot METCs which were previously deployed. The updated METCs have a shorter and flexible design, with additional solar power equipment, and purposely incorporated the patented "Antarctic Car" insulation technology, with reverse cycle air conditioning systems, to ensure the METCs can operate normally under extreme cold environment, and bridging polar and rural regions to access high-quality medical services.