Moldovan parliament ratifies framework agreement on loan with Council of Europe's Development Bank for purchasing ambulances

Chisinau, 26 July /MOLDPRES/ - As many as 170 new ambulances will be bought with the financial support of the European Union. The parliament today adopted, in the first and second readings, a draft law on the ratification of a framework agreement on loan between Moldova and the Council of Europe’s Development Bank for carrying out the project on purchasing ambulances.

The project, worth 12 million euros, provides for the buying of 133 B-type ambulances and about 35 C-type ones. The ambulances will be distributed all over Moldova, being meant for renewing the park of ambulances of the Pre-hospital Emergency Medical Assistance National Centre.    

At the parliament meeting, Health, Labour and Social Protection Minister Svetlana Cebotari stressed that “the implementation of the project will improve the residents’ access to the pre-hospital emergency assistance, will turn the interventions by specialized services quicker, which will enhance the chances of citizens’ survival.”

The loan will be provided for a period of 15 years, with a five-year grace period and an interest rate which is to be established at each offer of disbursement, depending on the rates applicable on the international market.

The park of ambulances of the Pre-hospital Emergency Medical Assistance National Centre has 295 functional ambulances, which have been working ever since the times of the Soviet Union. Eighty per cent of them have a degree of wear of 100 per cent. The emergency medical assistance system needs about 450 ambulances.   

The framework agreement on loan between Moldova and the Council of Europe’s Development Bank for carrying out the project on purchasing ambulances was signed in Chisinau on 12 July 2018.

(Reporter A. Ciobanu, editor A. Raileanu)