Japan loans Rs.15.5bn to Sri Lanka to fight NCDS
Sri Lanka entered into a concessional loan agreement with the Japanese government to borrow approximately Rs.15.5 billion (10,639 million Japanese Yen) to fight non communicable diseases (NCDS) in the country.
The loan will be provided by Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) under the Special Terms for Economic Partnership (STEP).
NDCS such as cardiovascular diseases and cerebrovascular diseases have increased in the recent past in Sri Lanka due to apparent epidemiological, socioeconomic and demographic transitions.
According to the statistics of the World Health Organization 75 percent of the mortality in Sri Lanka is caused by NCDS and cardiovascular diseases in particular are the leading cause of mortality accounting for 40 percent of the total.
The loan proceeds will be utilized to improve facilities of tertiary care hospital in Anuradhapura, Kandy, Kurunegala, Badulla and Trincomalee under the government’s ‘Medical Service Improvement Project to Prevent NCDS.’
The loans proceeds will also go to upgrade facilities of the Bio Medical Engineering Services Unit of the Ministry of Health, Nutrition and Indigenous Medicine and the training institutions for the Medical Laboratory Technologists (MLT).
The project will be implemented under the supervision of the Ministry of Health, Nutrition and Indigenous Medicine and it is scheduled to be completed in 2023.
Exchange of notes of the project was signed between the Sri Lankan government and the Japanese government during President Maithripala Sirisena’s visit to Japan in March 2018.