PHNOM PENH — China will provide 100 Cambodian children who have congenital heart disease with free surgery in three years in a program called “China-Cambodia Love Heart Journey.”

The program was inaugurated on Jan 11 by visiting Premier Li Keqiang and his Cambodian counterpart Samdech Techo Hun Sen at the Peace Palace in the Cambodian capital of Phnom Penh.

Under the program, Chinese medical personnel will teach on site their Cambodian counterparts who can also have opportunities to go to China for training.

China will cooperate with Cambodia to conduct research in the Southeast Asian country on the early screening and comprehensive intervention of cardiovascular disease.

The two leaders also inaugurated the projects of China-Cambodia Friendship Preah Kossamak Hospital and Tboung Khmum Provincial Hospital.

With a history of more than 100 years, Preah Kossamak Hospital in Phnom Penh is one of the oldest hospitals in Cambodia. China will build a medical building there with a total area of 29,000 square km and 400 beds. The hospital has been renamed China-Cambodia Friendship Preah Kossamak Hospital.

Tboung Khmum Provincial Hospital will be located in Tboung Khmum, a newly established province near Phnom Penh. The Cambodian government plans to settle another 80,000 people there.