The CEO of the Saudi Fund for Development, Sultan Al-Marshad, laid the foundation stone for the project to rehabilitate and expand the General Children's Emergency Hospital in the Kyrgyz capital Bishkek. SFD will finance the project with a $30 million soft development loan. The ceremony was attended by Saudi Ambassador to the Kyrgyz Republic Ibrahim Al-Radi, Acting Minister of Health in Kyrgyzstan Gulnara Baatyrova, the Director of the Kyrgyz State Agency of Architecture, Construction, Housing and Communal Services, a delegation from the Saudi Fund for Development, and several Kyrgyz officials. The project will contribute to developing the healthcare sector in the Kyrgyz Republic, especially in pediatric care. To cater to the growing healthcare needs of the republic, the project will construct and equip a five-story surgical building with a total area of 17,000 square meters and a capacity of 212 medical beds. The funding will also cover medical and non-medical equipment, furniture for the surgery building, advisory services, and supervising implementation. Kyrgyz President Sadyr Japarov expressed his appreciation to the government of Saudi Arabia for the development support it provides through the Saudi Fund for Development. He emphasized that this vital project would contribute to strengthening the healthcare system in his country and will help expand healthcare services to the Kyrgyz population, precisely in Bishkek and neighboring cities to ensure a healthy and sustainable future. In a related context, in the presence of Kasimampitov Soyunbek, Minister of State of the Kyrgyz Republic, SFD CEO Al-Marshad inaugurated the fourteenth public school funded by Saudi Arabia in Bishkek. The school's inauguration comes within the comprehensive framework of the project to construct 30 public schools in various regions of the country. The number of students to benefit directly and indirectly from the project is expected to reach 50,000 annually, made possible by the Fund's soft development loan valued at $30 million. The project aims to develop and improve public education in Kyrgyzstan by building more schools to meet the needs of the increasing number of students in different regions. The project forms part of the government's plan to develop the country's education sector and help alleviate the hardships students face when trying to reach schools that are far away from their homes. The new school, with 40 classrooms, vocational and technical laboratories, gyms, and integrated boarding health clinics, will further contribute to reducing the student density in a neighboring school, which has more than 2,000 students. — SG
