A major hospital officially opened for service in a special economic zone on Friday, playing a role to further improve the medical treatment and service standards in the prosperous Pearl River Delta region.

He Yulong, president of the Seventh Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou-based Sun Yat-sen University, said his hospital is expected to provide excellent medical treatment and service to not only local patients but also people from the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area and serve the country's Belt and Road Initiative in the years to come.

He promised in the following years to build the hospital into a major medical center in the world, one with distinctive Chinese characteristics and style, by recruiting special medical experts and senior doctors as well as importing advanced medical technologies and equipment.

"The hospital has 22 clinical departments including outpatient, inpatient, surgery and intensive care units," he said.

Covering an area of more than 235,200 square meters, the hospital, situated in Shenzhen's Guangming New District and bordering Dongguan city, now includes 800 inward beds.

But the hospital will have more than 4,000 beds when its second phase is completed and service begins in 2020, becoming the largest comprehensive hospital in Shenzhen bordering the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, he said.

Luo Jun, president of Sun Yat-sen University, said the hospital demonstrates the successful cooperation between Sun Yat-sen University and the Shenzhen city government and also helps meet the growing demand among local residents for good medical services.

The hospital has attracted patients from Guangzhou, the capital of Guangdong province, and other major cities in the Pearl River Delta on its first day of service.

Sun Yat-sen University and the Shenzhen city government signed the contract to jointly construct the hospital in June 2016. It is the first hospital of Sun Yat-sen University in Shenzhen.