Pakistan and Germany Thursday signed financing agreements to the tune of around Rs 2.16 billion on Social Health Protection Phase-II. Secretary Economic Affairs Division Noor Ahmed and Country Director German Development Bank (KfW) Wolfgang Moeller signed financing agreements for social Health Protection Phase II. Under the agreement, KfW will provide grant assistance worth € 2.6 million and € 9.4 million for Gilgit-Baltistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa respectively. The collective amount offered is equivalent to € 12 million.
The financial contribution will be used exclusively for the development of social health protection schemes in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Gilgit-Baltistan to provide quality healthcare services to the registered beneficiaries. The Health Department Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Health Department Gilgit-Baltistan will be involved in implementation of programme which will cover cost for hospitalisation for child birth, common diseases of childhood, injuries, accidents, common surgeries and medical ailments.
The signing ceremony was witnessed by Federal Minister for Economic Affairs Muhammad Hammad Azhar. The minister thanked the German government for the grant assistance which will be helpful in redressing the critical health related issues in far-flung regions of Gilgit-Baltistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
He highlighted that these initiatives are commendable as they are geared to impact the lives of the common man. The government of Pakistan values the focus of the German government to invest in such schemes and looks forward to further strengthening future cooperation in the upcoming government-to-government (G2G) negotiations to be held in Berlin.