The first meeting with representatives of China's Sinopharm was held at Split's Clinical Hospital Center today. The state-owned pharmaceutical giant China National Pharmaceutical Group, Sinopharm, is offering to build Split's University Hospital, a teaching hospital the city has been hoping to build for decades. The deal would include favorable loans from Chinese lenders to finance the project.

"This hospital would have around 150 thousand square meters of space. A project of that size, anywhere in the world, costs around 1.5 billion euros," said Minister Kujundžić.

Part of the deal would also be to provide medical services to Chinese patients, which would go towards repaying part of the loan, the minister said, adding that the hospital would still be owned, run, and staffed by Croatians.

Chinese investors are also interested in building an emergency services wing at Split's main hospital.

As for the university hospital, local officials are considering possible locations and Klis is one of them, given its proximity to the city and the A1 highway.

Sinopharm representatives declined to speak to reporters.