(COLOMBO, LANKAPUVATH) – The Government of Sri Lanka decided to borrow a loan amounting to USD 110 million from the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and a grant of USD 03 million, provided by ADB-managed Japanese Fund for Poverty Reduction (JFPR), to implement the “Additional Financing of Health Systems Enhancement Project”, the Finance Ministry said.
In early 2020, with the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic, USD 15 million from the ongoing HSEP, was reallocated for the emergency activities related to scaling up of the capacity of molecular biology laboratory, increasing the accessibility to emergency medical equipment at hospitals, expanding high dependency and intensive care units, expanding oxygen accessibility, and increasing the availability of consumables like surgical masks, personal protection equipment and reagents and other consumables for polymerase chain reaction (PCR) testing and screening of COVID-19.
The additional financing will be used to scale up of the outputs of a well performing ongoing project, addressing the government’s urgent financing requirements to support and manage the third wave of COVID-19 pandemic, and the replenishment of above reallocated funds to complete the originally planned activities mainly related to primary health care (PHC) development.
The aggregate impact of the original and the additionally financed projects continue to be aligned with the original project impact which is building a healthier nation ensured with a more comprehensive PHC system and to support COVID-19 pandemic management. The total project cost is estimated as USD 123 million including the Government contribution of USD 10 million. The project is scheduled to be completed by 30th November, 2025.
The relevant Loan Agreement and Grant Agreement for the Additional Financing of Health Systems Enhancement Project, amounting to USD 110 million and USD 3 million respectively, were signed by S R Attygalle, Secretary, Ministry of Finance, on behalf the Government of Sri Lanka and Chen Chen, Country Director, ADB Resident Mission on behalf of ADB on 7th October, 2021.
