Cambodia has inaugurated a China-funded landmark hospital here on Monday, which is expected to significantly contribute to improving health care services in the country's eastern and northeastern regions.
Officially named the Cambodia-China Friendship Tboung Khmum Hospital, the five-story hospital has 300 beds and is well-equipped with high-technology medical equipment for checkups, treatment and surgery.
Cambodian Prime Minister Samdech Techo Hun Sen and Chinese Ambassador to Cambodia Wang Wentian presided over the inauguration ceremony, which more than 1,000 people attended.
Hun Sen said the hospital was another testament to the fruitful cooperation between Cambodia and China under the frameworks of the comprehensive strategic partnership and the community with a shared future.
He said the hospital would play an important role in improving the well-being of people in the country's eastern and northeastern regions.
"Through Ambassador Wang Wentian, I'd like to express my gratitude to the government and people of China for having provided a great deal of generous assistance to us for the development of the health sector," he said.
Hun Sen also expressed his sincere thanks to China for having actively supported Cambodia in the fight against COVID-19 pandemic by providing medical equipment, experts, and vaccines.
He said with its high vaccination rates, Cambodia has reopened its borders to fully-vaccinated travelers without quarantine since the middle of November last year.
Speaking at the event, Ambassador Wang believed that the hospital would serve people better as it was equipped with modern medical technologies.
"This is emblematic of the China-Cambodia friendship," he said. "I'm confident that the hospital will play an important role in protecting people's lives and well-being."
Meanwhile, Wang reiterated that as long as the pandemic was not over, China's aid for Cambodia's fight against the pandemic would not end.
Cambodia's Health Minister Mam Bunheng said the hospital was built by the China Railway Construction Group Co., Ltd. and funded by the Chinese government.
Built on the land area of 24,300 square meters in Tboung Khmum provincial town's Srolob commune, the project took 32 months to be completed from March 2019 to November 2021, he said.
"It will also serve as a regional hospital for people in neighboring Kratie, Ratanakiri, Stung Treng and Mondulkiri provinces," Bunheng said.
"This is an invaluable gift, that was born of the ironclad friendship and the comprehensive strategic partnership of cooperation between Cambodia and China, for people in Tboung Khmum province and the northeastern region," he said.
With more than 350 medical staff, the hospital would importantly contribute to the government's policy in expanding health services to rural people and ethnic minority groups, the minister said.
