Construction on a new 212-bed hospital building in Siem Reap province is now underway at a cost of $19 million, with the funding coming from a grant provided by the Japanese government.

The ground-breaking ceremony took place on December 7 and was presided over by provincial health department director Kros Sarath along with Kamei Haruko, chief representative of the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) in Cambodia.

The new building is part of a project to upgrade the province’s referral hospitals

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“This will be a new building covering approximately 7,260sqm at the Siem Reap provincial referral hospital that will add 212 beds and facilities for consultations, outpatient treatments, emergency services, surgeries, among others,” JICA said in a press release on December 7.

The project will also provide the new building with medical supplies including radiographs and ultrasound equipment as well as equipment for the other wards of the provincial hospital and the four other district hospitals.

According to the grant financing agreement signed in October last year between the Ministry of Economy and Finance and JICA, the project is scheduled to run until June of 2023. Its aim is to rehabilitate the provincial referral hospital and four district hospitals by improving their medical facilities.

In March last year, Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation Prak Sokhonn and Japanese ambassador to Cambodia Masahiro Mikami signed a grant worth approximately $41 million for the implementation of three projects, including these Siem Reap hospital upgrades.