The Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) Navy hospital ship "Peace Ark", which is on the Mission Harmony-2024, arrived at the port of Douala in Cameroon on Monday to conduct a seven-day visit and provide medical service to local residents.
It marked the hospital ship's first visit to the central African country.
The Cameroonian government held a grand welcome ceremony at the dock of the hospital ship, with the attendance of Cameroonian military and political officials, local residents, staff of the Chinese embassy in Cameroon, representatives of overseas Chinese and Chinese-funded institutions in Cameroon.
The hospital ship will offer diagnosis and treatment services on its main platform while dispatching expert and medical teams to local hospitals, military bases, communities, and government institutions to conduct activities such as joint medical treatment, academic exchanges and emergency skills training.
The hospital ship conducted a joint training with two patrol ships from Cameroon's navy in the waters off the port of Douala on Sunday.
The training testified each other's command, communication and coordination capabilities and laid solid foundation for strengthening military cooperation and exchanges between the two sides.
The "Peace Ark" set sail from a military port in Zhoushan in east China's Zhejiang Province in mid-June for Mission Harmony-2024.
During the mission, the ship will visit 13 countries and make port calls to France and Greece.
This is the 10th Mission Harmony for "Peace Ark" since its commissioning in 2008.
There are over 100 personnel on board the maritime hospital, featuring 17 clinical departments and 5 auxiliary diagnostic departments.
The "Peace Ark" is the first domestically designed and constructed standard ocean-going hospital ship in China.
China’s hospital ship “Peace Ark” pays maiden visit to Cameroon
China will strengthen fiscal and financial coordination to amplify policy effectiveness, experts said as the draft central and local budgets for 2026 were unveiled on Friday at the ongoing fourth session of the 14th National People's Congress.
According to the draft central and local budgets for 2026, 1.3 trillion yuan (190 billion U.S. dollars) of ultra-long special treasury bonds will be issued to provide continued support for the implementation of major national strategies and security capacity-building in key areas and for large-scale equipment upgrades and consumer goods trade-in programs.
Ultra-long special treasury bonds totaling 800 billion yuan will be allocated to support the implementation of major national strategies and security capacity-building in key areas, and 250 billion yuan in ultra-long special treasury bonds will be earmarked for consumer goods trade-in programs.
The country will refine these programs in terms of their scope and subsidy standards, and continue to support the scrapping and replacement of automobiles, home appliance trade-in schemes, and purchases of new digital and smart products.
China will also set up a 100-billion-yuan fiscal-financial coordination fund to boost domestic demand. The fund will support consumption and private investment through loan interest subsidies, financing guarantee, and risk compensation.
"Fiscal and monetary policies are the two major macroeconomic tools for macro-control, and their coordination is crucial. For instance, fiscal funds primarily serve as a guiding role, while financial institutions provide the capital. When fiscal guidance and financial resources are combined, the synergistic effect creates a result greater than the sum of its parts," said Yang Zhiyong, director of the Chinese Academy of Fiscal Sciences.
"By leveraging interest subsidies, we can mobilize substantial credit from financial institutions, thereby naturally stimulating consumption. The Ministry of Finance, in collaboration with the People's Bank of China, has introduced highly innovative measures, such as providing guarantees for the issuance of corporate bonds by small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), and compensating investors for losses. I believe the leveraging effect, making minimal efforts for maximum results, will become even more potent," said Yao Dongmin, director of the Center for China Fiscal Development under the Central University of Finance and Economics.
China's top legislature opened its annual session on Thursday morning at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, with Chinese President Xi Jinping and other Party and state leaders attending the opening meeting alongside more than 2,700 NPC deputies. This year's NPC session is scheduled to run till March 12.
China to strengthen fiscal, financial coordination to amplify policy effectiveness: experts
