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)
