The Jiangsu Province of the People’s Republic of China has collaborated with the East New Britain provincial government by donating dental equipment to the Nonga General Hospital in Rabaul.
The Chinese Ambassador to PNG handed over the equipment to Governor Nakikus Konga and members of the provincial administration on Monday 15 November in NCD.
Governor Konga said, “In such a pandemic as COVID-19, we should not neglect our health. We must take care of our health. This was the rationale behind the donation of the dental equipment by the Chinese Embassy to the East New Britain province.”
It is a donation made in response to a request by Governor Konga to the former Chinese Ambassador to PNG.
East New Britain Administrator, Wilson Matava expressed appreciation for the donation from China.
“The challenges in our medical equipment as a nation and especially for ENB we want to see improvement in our dental, our kidney dialysis. We want to see these facilities improve in all our four districts. We see all our four districts in the province having specialist health services for the province,” Matava said.
Governor Konga said East New Britain has a population of 420,000, the largest in the New Guinea Islands region with Nonga Base Hospital as the referral hospital for the region.
Ambassador Zeng Fanhua expressed admiration for the culture of the people of PNG, most especially the kind assistance to China during the COVID-19 pandemic in china. He said there is a good relationship and close cooperation between the two countries.
“PNG helped us when the pandemic break out at the beginning of last year. We will never forget that. so now we try to help PNG to fund the pandemic to fund the virus through the donation of vaccines and funding and equipment,” the Ambassador said.