Korea to start new healthcare project in Uzbekistan

Director of KOICA Uzbekistan Office Im Jeong Hee and the Deputy Minister of Health of Uzbekistan Laziz Tuychiev have signed a protocol on the implementation of a new project “Creation of a center of excellence of medical personnel of the Children’s Diversified Medical Center and the 4th-level highly specialized multidisciplinary clinic” in Tashkent, the Times of Central Asia reports.

Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) that implements government programs of gratuitous assistance is intent on delivering a project with a budget of 7 million US dollars over the next five years (2016-2020). The scheme seeks to set up and use an innovation center in order to improve the quality of care in pediatrics, capacity building among specialists of pediatric areas for advanced skills in surgery, training and research in the innovation center, and reduce mortality and morbidity.

Speaking at the signing ceremony, Laziz Tuychiev thanked the Agency for the fruitful cooperation and expressed hope that the training center being established under the project will be one of the best institutions for medical workers in Uzbekistan. In response, Im Jeong Hee noted that “the children’s multidisciplinary medical center will be built in Tashkent in 2017 with the assistance of the Economic Development and Cooperation Foundation of the Republic of Korea (EDCF), which has allocated preferential loan of more than 102 million dollars.”

Uzbekistan’s contribution to the project will amount to 27 million dollars, including $20 million in the form of tax and customs privileges. The center will be designed for 1,500 surgeries a year. The project includes also the organization of workshops in South Korea and Uzbekistan.