China's central government will spend 100 billion yuan (US$14.7 billion) for equipment and building constructions for nearly 10,000 grassroots medical institutions by 2011, according to the Ministry of Health on Friday.

Zhao Zilin, a senior official with the Ministry of Health, announced the plan at a press conference here Friday. So far, the government has allocated 20 billion yuan for the construction projects of 961 county-level hospitals, 3,556 township health centers and 1,153 community health centers.

According to Zhao, the Health Ministry has worked with the National Development and Reform Commission to finance the country's all 2,000 county-level hospitals, 5,000 township health centers and 2,400 community health centers.

The target of the financial aid is to build up at least one standardized county-level hospital and several qualified township health centers in each county.

A standardized county-level hospital is required to have at least 250 beds for inpatients.

The standardized equipment of a qualified township health center should include X-ray apparatus, Type-B ultrasonic devices and life-support machines.

(Xinhua News Agency July 4, 2009)