President Luis Abinader announced a fund of more than RD$2 billion is now available for lending to private health ventures. Speaking at the Presidential Palace on Wednesday, 6 April 2022, Abinader said that the funds are available through the Development and Export Bank (Bandex).
During the launching ceremony of the Bandex Health Advancement Fund, the President said the loans are for clinics and third level medical centers, laboratories, national and export pharmaceutical production or health tourism projects. The interest rates on these loans start at 6.5% in pesos and 5.5% in US dollars, with terms up to 20 years and grace periods.
The funds can be used for the construction, expansion and remodeling of medical facilities, purchasing of state-of-the-art medical equipment, and automating of services and implementing of new technologies in the health sector.
“You, the private health sector, together with the public system, were the pillars of this society in the most difficult moments of the pandemic,” said the President. “We will always be grateful to you, and now we also want to push together to achieve what we have set out to achieve; a first class health system, with wide coverage and among the best in the region”.
In making the announcement, President Abinader was accompanied by the Vice President Raquel Peña; the general manager of BANDEX, Juan Mustafá; Public Health Minister Daniel Rivera; Presidency Administrative Minister José Ignacio Paliza; the Deputy Minister of Public Credit of the Ministry of Finance, María José Martínez; and the president of the National Association of Private Clinics and Hospitals (Andeclip), Rafael Mena.
Also present were the directors of Promese/Cal, Adolfo Pérez; of the National Health Service, Mario Lama; of Senasa, Santiago Hazim; the superintendent of Health and Labor Risks, Jesús Feris Iglesias; the medical advisor to the Presidency, Víctor Atallah and the advisor to the Ministry of Public Health on Covid-19, Eddy Pérez.
Read more in Spanish:
Presidency
7 April 2022