Bahrain and Saudi fund sign $58m health grant deals

Bahrain’s Ministry of Finance and Saudi Development Fund (SDF) have signed two financial grant agreements to implement the second phase of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s grant under the Gulf Development Programme.The SDF is assigned the task of managing the Saudi grants which cover two projects in health sector worth $58 Million as part of the total Saudi grant of $2.5 Billion.Bahrain’s Finance Minister Shaikh Ahmed bin Mohammed Al Khalifa and SDF Vice President and Managing Director Yusuf Ibrahim Al-Bassam signed the agreements in the presence of the Saudi Ambassador to Bahrain Dr. Abdullah Abdul-Malik Al Al-Sheikh. The first agreement includes the provision of the necessary funding for construction of the Kidney Dialysis Centre in Riffa in consideration for a total sum of $21 million.The project aims to provide medical services to kidney patients with an intake capacity of 60 beds and to reduce waiting lists and increase efficacy of healthcare in this field. The second agreement includes the provision of funding towards construction of the Long-term Stay Care Centre in Muharraq City for a total amount of $37 million to provide medical services to patients who need long-term stay at health centres (HCs) with a total intake capacity of 100 beds.Six similar grant agreements were signed earlier on December 30, 2012 with the SDF which covered housing, education, works, electricity and water projects with a total amount of $448 million.