August 28 (SeeNews) - State-owned China National Pharmaceutical Group (Sinopharm) is interested in building three university hospitals in Croatia, the government of Split-Dalmatia county said.
Representatives of Sinopharm, the county and Croatia's health ministry have held their first working meeting on possible construction of three university hospitals, the Split-Dalmatia county council said in a press release on Monday.
Sinofarm is interested in building university hospitals in the capital Zagreb, in Croatia's second largest city of Split and in the fourth largest city of Osijek, the county council said
The construction of such a hospital would require an area of some 150,000 square metres, while investment in this type of hospitals typically amounts to some 1.5 billion euro ($1.66 billion), according to the press release.
The Split-Dalmatia county governor, Blazenko Boban, was quoted as saying at the meeting that the most suitable location for a hospital in Split region is the town of Klis. The town is situated some 15 km north of Split. A hospital there would serve 320,000 inhabitants of the cities of Split, Trogir, Kastel and Omis.
Boban said that for the investor it is important that the hospital is located close to a motorway and an airport.
Health minister Milan Kujundzic said that the hospital would be owned by Croatia and its management and staff will also be Croatian. The hospital will be also treating Chinese patients.
China's Sinopharm says it employs 110,000 people and has a full chain in the industry covering R&D, manufacturing, logistics and distribution, retail chains, healthcare, engineering services, exhibitions and conferences, international business and financial services. It has over 1,100 subsidiaries with six of them being listed companies.
($=0.901670 euro)