WB to grant Romania $40m

The World Bank on Tuesday approved a credit worth 40 million dollars for the Romanian health reform project, a bank’s press release reads.

The credit is the first of the two adaptable loan programmes amounting together to 60 million dollars, that the World Bank intends to grant to the Romanian Government, over the next five years. These programmes aim at implementing the necessary elements for a long-term strategy of reform and development in the health sector, which is also supported by other international agencies and donors.

The adaptable credit programme is an instrument approved in 1997 by the World Bank’s Management Board and it is more flexible than traditional instruments for long-term financing of complex programmes and reforms.

The project will finance investments in corporate assets and staff training for primary medical care and other medical services. Pilot initiatives for improving efficiency through health services reorganisation will be supported as well.

The credit approved by the World Bank represents the first step of the programme, which includes investment and professional training in 24 hospitals, as well as supporting project development for at least 75% of Romanian counties. Other donors, among which the Romanian Government (with 27.59 million dollars), will also contribute to this project.

The credit will be due twenty years from now. Since 1990, the World Bank’s financial pledges towards Romania have amounted to 3 billion dollars, for 29 projects.