JICA extends 10bn yen loan for Health and Medical services

Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) signed a loan agreement with the Government of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka (GOSL) on Wednesday to provide Japan’s Official Development Assistance (ODA) loan up to 10.639 billion yen for the Health and Medical Service Improvement Project.

The objective of the project is to improve medical services for the diagnosis and treatment of non-communicable diseases (NCDS) by strengthening the medical facilities and equipment at the tertiary care hospitals, providing equipment to training institutions for medical laboratory technologists (MLT) and strengthening the maintenance and management system for medical equipment at the Bio Medical Engineering Services under the Ministry of Health, Nutrition and Indigenous Medicine (MOH) and target medical institutions.

The targeted tertiary care hospitals of the project are Anuradhapura, Badulla, Kandy, Kurunegala and Trincomalee. The loan funds will be mainly allocated towards the improvement of laboratory facilities in the above hospitals.

Furthermore, managing the existing medical equipment, maintenance and management system also needs to be strengthened. The new JICA project is expected to address these issues at the targeted medical institutions noted above.