Egypt, Japan sign agreement to increase JICA grant to $19M to promote health sector

CAIRO – 4 August 2021: Egypt and Japan signed an agreement to increase the value of the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) grant to become $19 million.

The agreement aims to construct the new outpatient clinic of the Abu al-Rish Japanese Hospital, which comes within the framework of the distinguished Egyptian-Japanese relations that promote the development of the health sector.  

The signing ceremony was attended by Minister of International Cooperation Rania al-Mashat, and Dr. Khaled Abdel Ghaffar, Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research, who signed the agreement.

Ambassador Noki Masaki, the Ambassador of Japan in Cairo, and Yoshifumi Omura, the main representative of the JICA office in Cairo, were present.

In her speech, Dr. Rania Al-Mashat, Minister of International Cooperation, praised the Egyptian-Japanese joint relations at the level of international cooperation and development financing, which resulted in supporting the health sector by about $28 million since 2020, represented by a $9 million grant to enhance the state’s efforts to combat the Corona pandemic, and the purchase of medical equipment, in addition to a grant to inaugurate the outpatient clinic building for Abu Al-Rish Hospital, worth $19 million.

Rania Al-Mashat explained that despite the Corona pandemic, international cooperation relations with Japan witnessed many important and pivotal agreements other than agreements to support the health sector, including a development financing agreement worth $236 million signed last February within the framework of financing development policies in the energy sector and budget support.

She further stressed the importance of Abu Al-Rish Hospital, which is a huge edifice for treating children, as it treats more than 25,000 patients per month.

For his part, Dr. Khaled Abdel Ghaffar, Minister of Higher Education and International Research, praised the Japanese government and JICA for the support they provided to the hospital.

He also stressed that increasing the grant for the Abu Al-Rish Children’s Hospital project contributes to reducing overcrowding and reducing waiting lists for children, adding that this cooperation comes as part of the keenness to develop a new mechanism in the construction of the clinics annex to maintain the safety of neighboring buildings.

In the same context, Ambassador Noki Masaki, Ambassador of Japan in Cairo, stressed the importance of Abul-Rish Hospital, and said that both the Japanese and Egyptian governments are working closely in many areas of cooperation and development, including the health sector.

The cooperation portfolio between the Arab Republic of Egypt and Japan started since 1954 and varies in many sectors to support the government's priorities for improving the level of children's health care, JICA is currently providing a grant to construct a seven-storey building behind the main hospital building to improve the hospital's efficiency to receive more patients and provide better health care for children.