Tk 56,994cr health project approved

The Executive Committee of National Economic Council (Ecnec) yesterday approved a Tk 56,994 crore project in the health sector to ensure quality and equitable health for all citizens in Bangladesh.
The approval was made at a meeting of the Ecnec with Finance Minister AMA Muhith in the chair in the NEC auditorium of the Planning Commission.
Foreign aid amounts to Tk 22,177 crore for the five-year Health, Population and Nutrition Sector Develop-ment Programme (HPNSDP) while the government will provide the rest, Tk 34,817 crore, for the project set to begin in the current fiscal year.
The Ecnec meeting urged the health ministry to intensify family planning activities under the programme to contain population boom.
An official of the planning ministry said that under the project, 13,000 community health providers will be appointed at the community clinics. There will be also 32 programmes including revitalising the community clinic-based services, primary healthcare, mother and child healthcare, and mainstreaming nutrition.
The new programme, HPNSDP, is a continuation of Health, Nutrition and Population Services Programme (HNPSP) introduced in 2003.
The Ecnec also approved six other projects involving Tk 3,987 crore.