On March 3, the Embassy of the People’s Republic of China in Liberia held a signing ceremony for the China-Liberia paired hospital cooperation mechanism project agreement and donation ceremony to the John F. Kennedy (JFK) Medical Center. Mr. Xu Kun, Chargé d'affaires, Mr. Li Jiang, Economic and Commercial Counsellor of the Chinese Embassy in Liberia, Madam Norwu Howard, Deputy Minister of Health of the Republic of Liberia, Mr. Jerry Brown, CEO and General Administrator of JFK Medical Center, representatives of the 15th Chinese medical team to Liberia and representatives of Chinese medical institutions in Liberia attended the ceremony.

Chargé d'Affaires Mr. Xu Kun introduced the background of China-Liberia paired hospital cooperation mechanism, fully affirmed the importance of the construction project of cardiology department launched by Heilongjiang Provincial Hospital and JFK Medical Center, and stressed that the Embassy will continue to support China-Liberia exchange and cooperation in the field of medicine and health, and work together to build China-Liberia health community.

The leader of the 15th Chinese medical team to Liberia, Dr. Wang Liang introduced the overview and implementation of the construction of cardiology Dept. project of the China-Liberia paired hospital cooperation mechanism. The CEO and General Administrator of JFK Medical Center, Dr. Brown thanked the Chinese government, the Embassy and the medical team for their help in promoting the development of the cardiology department of JFK Medical Center, hoping to further strengthen the paired hospital cooperation mechanism and promote the comprehensive and balanced development of various disciplines in JFK Medical Center. On behalf of the Liberian government, Deputy Minister of Health Madam Norwu Howard thanked the Chinese government and the Embassy for their long-standing support and assistance to the health sector, and expressed her willingness to deepen exchanges and cooperation with China in the field of health care.

At the signing ceremony, the Chinese Embassy in Liberia donated a batch of medical supplies to JFK Medical Center, including ventilators, oxygen masks for ventilators, disposable masks and anti-malarial medicines.

On May 18, 2020, Chinese President Xi Jinping announced in his speech at the opening ceremony of the 73rd World Health Assembly video conference that 30 China-Africa paired hospital cooperation mechanisms will be established. Chinese Heilongjiang Provincial Hospital and the John F. Kennedy Medical Center (JFKMC) in Liberia established a cooperation mechanism is one of the implementation initiatives. As one of the important contents of the cooperation mechanism, the two sides launched the Construction of Cardiology Department Project, which aims to help Liberia build an independent cardiology team with 12 beds, 4 cardiologists and 4 nurses through cooperation and assistance such as medical equipment and medicine donation, clinical guidance by experts, remote training and training in Heilongjiang Provincial Hospital by visiting China. The project aims to build an independent cardiology team to achieve the goal of reserving medical and nursing talents, and to improve the level of diagnosis and treatment of cardiovascular diseases and the ability to rescue emergency and critical cases. The project period is from 2022 to 2025.