China’s Ambassador to Laos Jiang Zaidong joined Laotian Health Minister Bounfeng Phoummalaysith for the ceremony three days ago, marking completion and hand-over to Laos of the first wing of the new Mahosot General Hospital by the Chinese engineering company, Beijing Uni-Construction Group Co., in the capital city, Vientiane. The new hospital ward and the building for treating infectious diseases will start taking patients next month; the second phase of the project is scheduled to be completed next year. Even as that second phase is underway, Ambassador Jiang expressed his hope that work could also get underway as soon as possible on the project for China to upgrade the Luang Prabang Hospital in northern Laos.
When fully operational, the new Mahosot Hospital complex will be the largest and most modern hospital in Laos, with state-of-the-art medical equipment. Its five buildings will hold 600 beds (with an expansion to 1,000 beds possible, according to the engineering company), a rooftop helicopter pad, medical departments, and a 400-seat conference room. In addition to leading construction of the hospital and providing modern medical equipment, China will now send medical experts to help train Laotian medical personnel, including on use of the new equipment, over the next three years. China provided generous funding for this project, which was considered so important that President Xi Jinping joined President Bounnhang Vorachit at its groundbreaking ceremony in November 2017. Lao Minister of Health Dr. Bounkong Syhavong spoke at that ceremony of the importance of the hospital to the government’s goal of raising Laos above least-developed country status by 2020.
The planned completion of the project was set back by the COVID-19 pandemic, but completion is now in sight. At last week’s official ceremony for completion of the first phase, China’s Ambassador Jiang expressed his hope that another hospital project planned with Chinese assistance, that of upgrading the Luang Prabang Hospital in northern Laos, can get underway even as the second phase of the Mahosot Hospital is being finished. The Luang Prabang Hospital project will facilitate people in remote areas of Laos to enjoy quality medical services, better health safeguard and local economic development, Jiang affirmed.
