The Rivers State government has signed an MoU with a Chinese construction company for the take over of the construction of the 1,000-bed capacity Karibi Whyte specialist Hospital.

State Commissioner for Health, Sampson Parker said the Chinese firm will take over from the Canadian Medical firm, Clinotech field.

Parker said the Rivers State government will only pay 15% of the $303 million needed under this new arrangement.

“We know that we are working with a budget of $303 million and Rivers State contribution to that is 15% and they will bring the rest of the money, finish the hospital, equip it and deliver it. ”

The representative of Chinese government and Jiangsu First Electrical Power Construction Company of China , Julie Zhu, assured that they would put in their best resources to ensure the completion of the project.

Zhu further assured that the project will be completed in two years: “We have about $4trillion of foreign reserve now and the Chinese government will want to use more of the resources to come and develop Africa.

“Many different financing programmes have been designed and earmarked for projects in Africa.

“The government is to provide the down payment, the Chinese bank will provide the funds to complete the project then a Chinese company will come in and complete the project”.

The signing of the contract was witnessed by the Rivers State Commissioner for Justice, Wogu Boms and other government officials.

Source: Daily Post