South Korea has pledged US $46 million Economic Development Co-operation Fund (EDCF) on concessional financing for establishment of children's hospital in Sukkur, Northern Sindh, which has the highest mortality rate among infants and children under 5-year in Pakistan.
The feasibility study of the 200-beds children hospital has already been completed by the Korean consultants. The health department of the provincial government Sindh will be project executing agency and will be responsible for the planning, implementation, management, supervision of the project. While, the contractors and consultants related to the project would be selected among the reputed and credible Korean companies through competitive bidding.
The project financing is being provided on the request of Pakistan under bilateral Framework Agreement for EDCF assistance. The financing will be administrated by EXIM Bank of Korea, having nominal interest rate of 0.1 percent per annum with maturity period of 40 years including a grace period of 10 years. The province was in dire need of such a specialised hospital for children and it would act as an umbrella for all the child related health facilities including child's pre-birth care and first of its kind Order Communications System (OCS) in the public sector hospitals of the country.