Japan to provide Moldova with 800,000 euros for supply of medical equipment

Chisinau, 22 December /MOLDPRES/ - Foreign Affairs and European Integration Minister Aureliu Ciocoi and Ambassador of Japan to Moldova Katayama Yoshihiro today signed an agreement on grant, compiled through exchanges of notes, between the governments of Moldova and Japan on the supply of medical equipment within the programme on social and economic development, at a ceremony held at the headquarters of the Foreign Affairs and European Integration Ministry (MAEIE), the ministry’s press service has reported.   

The Moldovan diplomacy head thanked the Japanese partners for the assistance provided to the national health system, which will allow buying medical equipment needed for medical institutions from Moldova.

The concerned agreement provides for the allocation of a grant worth 100 million Japanese yen (equivalent of 800,000 euros), meant for the purchasing of consumables, products, services, medical equipment, as well as for their maintenance. Following the fulfillment of the internal legal procedures for the entering into force of the exchange of notes, the turning to account of the assistance is to cover several stages: creation of the consultative council, disbursement of financial means, providing and use, according to the purpose, of the medical equipment.   

The Tokyo government has earlier provided Moldova with an important consignment of 12,200 antiviral pills Avigan (Favipiravir), necessary for the treatment of 100 patients infected with COVID-19.    

At the bilateral meeting, Aureliu Ciocoi highlighted the appreciation for the consistent assistance on behalf of Japan during 2020, among which the agreement on loan for the implementation of the project, Modernization of farming technology and equipment, which sees providing of a credit on easy terms with an overall value of 18.7 million dollars, with an interest rate of 0.1 per cent for a 40-year repayment period. The accord is negotiated to back farmers in the context of the difficult situation from this sector and is meant to support the increase in the agricultural production and the stabilization of the country’s economy, as well as the grant worth 409,000 dollars meant for the preservation and protection of the cultural heritage at the institutions of the national system of libraries and widening citizens’ access to information through the procurement of modern equipment and digitization of Moldova’s National Library.    

The officials also reviewed up-to-date subjects on the bilateral and multilateral agenda and exchanged opinions on ways of qualitative extension of the Moldovan-Japanese bilateral relation.   

photo: MAEIE