Georgia: In a significant development, a loan agreement has been inked between Georgia and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) to pave the way for a robust healthcare sector strengthening program.
Under this agreement, ADB has committed to providing Georgia with a substantial sum of about 23.2 million euros in 2024.
On Wednesday, Georgian Finance Minister Lasha Khutsishvili and Lesley Bearman Lahm, the Asian Development Bank Country Director for Georgia, took a significant step by signing a €46 million loan agreement, fortifying the country’s healthcare system.
This program represents ADB’s comprehensive and integrated package of support to improve health care in Georgia,” said ADB Director General for Central and West Asia Yevgeniy Zhukov. “While it will help improve health care for all, this program will mainly benefit the poor, women, and vulnerable groups.
The program supports redesigning the government’s primary healthcare benefits package, which would improve marketer service coverage morale, especially for the poor and vulnerable.
It also enables strategic purchasing to increase the share of quality health care. It supports changes in digital information systems to efficiently manage healthcare programs for high levels of non-communicable diseases—including heart disease, hypertension, cancer, and diabetes—which reduce life expectancy and healthy aging.
Strengthening government-funded primary health care and outpatient services can help manage these diseases, most of which are preventable.
As part of the loan agreement, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) will allocate a substantial sum of 46,275,000 euros. The first tranche, amounting to 23,137,500 euros, is scheduled to be disbursed in 2024, with the second tranche expected to follow in 2025.
ADB has supported Georgia since 2007 and is one of the country’s largest multilateral development partners. Its loans, grants, and technical assistance total $4 billion.
