China handed over the completed office building of the Jamhuriat Hospital (Republic Hospital) to the Afghan government in Afghan capital Kabul on Thursday.
At the hand-over ceremony, as well as the opening ceremony of the construction of the temporary medical house, Chinese Ambassador to Afghanistan Liu Jian said "the completion of the office building is a good beginning, and the temporary medical building will provide the place for treatment before the construction of the main medical building."
Afghan Public Health Minister Mohammad Amin Fatimi thanked China for the help to the Afghan medical course, saying the 20-million-US dollar hospital "will become the most developed and well-equipped hospital in Afghanistan after the completion."
The Jamhuriat Hospital is the China-sponsored hospital to help the medical reconstruction of the post-war Afghanistan. It took one and half years' hard work by Chinese companies and Afghan people to complete the construction of the office building.
The construction of the 10-floor main medical building with about 350 medical beds will begin very soon.
During the decades of war, medical facilities in Afghanistan have been destroyed and a lot of Afghan doctors fled to other countries. Now about 77 percent of Afghans can get the medical treatment from the government. According to the Public Health Minister, five percent more Afghans will be covered by the national medical system this year, and in the next four years, all Afghan people will enjoy the national medical system.
(Xinhua News Agency March 31, 2006)
