The Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) has approved a loan of 2.48 billion yuan ($355 million) to support China's public health infrastructure in light of the COVID-19 pandemic, the AIIB's press service said on Tuesday
BEIJING (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 07th April, 2020) The Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) has approved a loan of 2.48 billion yuan ($355 million) to support China's public health infrastructure in light of the COVID-19 pandemic, the AIIB's press service said on Tuesday.
"In response to China's emergency financing needs for public health infrastructure to manage the spread of COVID-19, the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank's (AIIB) Board of Directors has approved a sovereign-backed loan of RMB2,485 million (approximately USD355 million equivalent) as an adaptive way of upgrading the country's sustainable public health infrastructure and providing emergency equipment and supplies," the statement said.
According to the press service, the loan aims to strengthen the public health emergency response capacity in the Chinese municipalities of Beijing and Chongqing. The AIIB notes that big cities with a large floating population have acute financial needs to prevent and fight against epidemics.
"The loan will support the sustainable development of the two cities' public health infrastructure, system and emergency response. These include upgrading their respective Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, enhancing the treatment capacity of medical institutions in dealing with epidemic emergencies and providing emergency equipment and supplies to frontline public health workers to help contain the outbreak of COVID-19," the statement said.
The outbreak of COVID-19, which was declared a pandemic on March 11 by the World Health Organization, erupted in late December in China's Wuhan and caused 81,700 Chinese citizens to become infected, with over 3,300 related deaths, according to the National Health Commission. On March 29, the Chinese health authorities announced that the spread of the coronavirus infection in the country had been generally stopped.
