Press briefing of Cabinet Decision taken on 2018-03-20

Project for the establishment of the Neonatal and Obstetrics Reference Centre for the De-Zoysa Maternity Hospital

- The Cabinet approval has been granted for the establishment of the Neonatal and Obstetrics Reference Centre for enhancing the qualitative aspect of the Neonatal treatment services provided by the De Zoysa Maternity Hospital and for securing funds for the purpose. Negotiations have been conducted to secure funds from the Government of France for this purpose and considering the obstacles and the delay in obtaining the said funds, a decision has been made to consider the alternative sources of loans.

Accordingly, the proposal made by Hon. Ranil Wickremasinghe, the Prime Minister in his capacity as the Minister of National Policies and Economic Affairs, to secure a loan of EURO 17.99 million from the Standard Chartered Bank and EURO 8.45 million from the Sampath Bank and to sign the relevant agreements, was approved by the Cabinet.