LNP - China grants Rs. 16.5 billion to improve medical care, education and water supply

China has extended a grant of Rs. 16.5 billion to improve medical care, education and water supply in rural areas of Sri Lanka. An Agreement on Economic and Technical Cooperation between the Governments of Sri Lanka and China was signed on Friday to provide 600 million RMB Yuan (Rs.16.5 billion) in grant assistance, the Chinese Embassy said in a release yesterday. The agreement was inked between Finance Ministry Secretary S.R.Attygalle and China International Development Cooperation Agency (CIDCA) Chairman Wang Xiaotao, on the sidelines of Chinese Communist Party Political Bureau Member Yang Jiechi’s visit to Sri Lanka. “President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa extended their sincere appreciation for this urgently-needed assistance. “Mutually agreed by both sides, the grant from the Chinese Government will be utilized with a high priority on medical care, education and water supply in rural areas of Sri Lanka, so as to contribute to the well-being of the people in a post-COVID era”. “Besides, during the meeting, Yang Jiechi and PM Mahinda Rajapaksa also went through other Chinese grant projects such as the National Nephrology (Kidney Disease) Hospital in Polonnaruwa and the new Out-Patient Department (OPD) of National Hospital in Colombo etc and expressed their satisfaction on the good progress despite the COVID-19 pandemic,” the media release said.