On Tuesday July 9, the Grant Agreement for “the Project for Improvement of Ambulances in Tajikistan" was signed by Mr. Faiziddin Qahhorzoda, the Minister of Finance of Tajikistan and Mr. Hideki Tanabe, the Chief Representative of Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) in Tajikistan.
According to JICA Office in Tajikistan, the Government of Japan has allocated 771, 000, 000 Japanese Yen (equivalent to about 7.1 million USD) through JICA to support the said Project.
The goal of the Project is to improve availability and quality of ambulances in order to ensure effective emergency medical service accessible to all people in the country.
The Project aims to provide about 90 ambulances with necessary on-board equipment for lifesaving such as defibrillator, patient monitor and resuscitation set. The ambulances will be provided to hospitals throughout the country; district central hospitals, regional hospitals, National Medical Center, Dushanbe City Emergency Hospital, the Research Institute for Obstetrics, Gynecology and Perinatology, etc.
Highlighting the importance of Tajikistan-Japan cooperation, Mr. Qahhorzoda stated that the agreement is historical as it is the first time for Tajikistan to receive such a big number of ambulances as grant.
Mr. Tanabe informed that JICA would continue supporting the health sector through Grant Aid and Technical Cooperation Projects.
Both sides reportedly agreed on importance of proper management and maintenance of ambulances to ensure their sustainable use and operation.
It is worth mentioning that Tajikistan is currently facing the problem of insufficient number of quality ambulances to meet the growing need of emergency care to its population. Having set the priority on access to quality health services, the Ministry of Health and Social Protection of Population has requested and cooperated with JICA for designing and developing the Project.
For long years, JICA has been providing medical equipment to contribute to improvement of health services in Tajikistan. Besides this new Project for ambulances, JICA previously provided equipment to maternity department of hospitals in Khatlon and Maternity Hospital No 1 of Dushanbe as well as National Medical Center.
JICA began its technical cooperation with Tajikistan in 1993 by inviting Tajik officials to gain knowledge and experience on governance and macroeconomics development. As of January 2018, a total number of participants to JICA’s Knowledge Co-Creation Programs, formerly called the Training Programs, has exceeded 2200 people. JICA Office was established in 2006 in Tajikistan and since then various Grant Financial Assistance and Technical Cooperation projects have been implemented more dynamically, aiming at improving living standard of Tajik people for the sectors such as agriculture and rural development, water supply, health, transport, energy, capacity building as well as SME promotion. JICA’s cumulative investment portfolio in Tajikistan in all sectors comprises 35 projects amounting to more than 349.6 million USD (82 million USD for Technical Cooperation and 267.6 million USD for Grant Assistance), including 11 on-going projects.
