China is to increase the number of organ transplant hospitals from 169 to about 300 by 2020, according to the chairman of the National Organ Donation and Transplantation Committee.

Huang Jiefu said the increase will enable the nation to become the world leader in terms of the number of lifesaving procedures performed.

Huang, the former deputy minister of health, was speaking on Sunday at an annual awareness-raising event held by the National Health and Family Planning Commission and the Red Cross Society of China in Wuhan, the capital of Hubei province.