ECONOMYNEXT – Germany has converted a 13 million Euro loan from the lending agency KfW to build a maternity hospital in Galle Sri Lanka, into a grant, the Finance Ministry said.
KfW had originally given the loan to Galle’s Mahamodara Maternity Hospital that was damaged by the 2004 Tsunami.
“Mahamodara Maternity Hospital, which was seriously damaged due to the Tsunami disaster is being reconstructed with the financial assistance from the German Government through its KfW Bank,” Finance Ministry said in a statement.
KfW had initially given a loan of 28 million euros to complete the reconstruction work of the hospital which was initiated by a grant from the Helmut Khol Foundation.
However, in 2017 KFW had further given a 13 million Euro loan to cover the additional requirements of the hospital.
Now called the New Maternity Hospital (Teaching) aims to provide Maternity and Gynecology health care services to the people in the Southern Province.
The hospital will have a 600-bed maternity care facilities and 800 patients’ treatment facilities at the Out Patient Department (OPD) and clinics.
The grant agreement was signed in Colombo on November 03 by S R Attygalle, Ministry of Finance Secretary; Martina Koch, Head of Division, Health and Social protection Asia from KfW Development Bank and Senior Project Manager, Annika Unterpertinger, Health and Social protection Asia from KfW Development Bank. (Colombo/Nov03/2021)