The Saudi Arabian government has agreed to provide a concessional loan of 187.5 Million Saudi Riyal (SAR) for a project to establish a fully equipped Faculty of Medicine in the Sabaragamuwa University at Ratnapura, the Ministry of Finance stated.

Issuing a press release, the ministry said, this project is set to be launched with the aim of constructing the essentially needed infrastructure facilities and to provide the students with the state of the art teaching and learning facilities (laboratory and other equipment) that would facilitate in providing the students with world-class medical education by constructing the Faculty of Medicine at the Sabaragamuwa University of Sri Lanka.

This Program will contribute to the government policy of augmenting the opportunities for higher education in the field of medicine in Sri Lanka, the released further said.

The ministry stated that a delegation headed by Secretary to the Ministry of Finance Dr R.H.S. Samratunga with Secretary to Ministry of Higher Education Priyantha Mayadunne and the Director General of the External Resources Department Priyantha Rathnayake have recently visited Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia from 6th to 9th April 2019 to make necessary negotiations in this regard.

They have held discussion with the delegation of Saudi Fund for Development headed by Mr Mohammed Aldolailan, Acting Director General, Operations Department and Advisor to the SFD, Mr Alobaid, Bandar Abdullah O., Engineer (Project Manager) and the Mr Alrashed, Mohammad Abdullah M., Engineer (Project Manager).

The negotiations were successfully concluded to obtain a concessional loan of SAR 187.5 Million from the Saudi Fund for Development (SFD), the released added.