Tunisia - The construction works of King Salman bin Abdulaziz University Hospital in Kairouan are expected to begin before the end of the first half of 2024, after the resolution of problems and difficulties, said a Prime Ministry statement issued on Monday evening.

The same source added that the progress rate of the road-works and external infrastructure of this hospital has reached 20%.

The fourth meeting of the High Committee for Accelerating Public Projects, chaired on Monday by Prime Minister Ahmed Hachani in Kasbah, reviewed the progress of several projects related to the healthcare sector.

The meeting was attended by the Minister of Interior, Minister of Finance, Minister of Social Affairs, Minister of Economy and Planning, Minister of Industry, Mines and Energy, Minister of Trade and Export Development, Minister of Agriculture, Water Resources and Fisheries, Minister of Health, Minister of Transport, Minister of Equipment and Housing, Minister of State Property and Real Estate Affairs, and Minister of Environment.

The committee was tasked with studying the problems and solutions related to the construction and equipping of several hospitals in Thala, Dahmani, Ghar El Melh, Jelma, Meknassy, Haffouz, El Jem, Sbeitla and Sidi Bouzid, as well as the rehabilitation and upgrading of hospital services in some specialised departments of hospitals in Regueb and Meknassy and in the governorates of Tunis, Sfax, Bizerte, Ben Arous and Medenine.

The committee also reviewed infrastructure and investment issues in the Taparura project on the north coast of Sfax, as well as various real estate, environmental and industrial issues related to financing that are hindering the implementation of this project.

In this context, the Prime Minister stressed the need for concerted efforts by all parties concerned to speed up solutions to these challenges according to a clear timetable for the project's launch. He noted that this project has been planned for decades and that the last meeting for this purpose was held in 2016.

The Prime Minister praised the progress made in resolving some of the difficulties that had been recorded previously. He stressed the importance of strengthening coordination between the relevant ministries, institutions, public companies and donors, especially to clarify the new vision of the state and its determination to complete all the planned projects.

The King Salman bin Abdulaziz Hospital project - a multi-speciality hospital with a capacity of up to 500 beds - comes under a memorandum of understanding signed between Tunisia and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in October 2017.

Under this MoU, Saudi Arabia is contributing to the financing of the construction and equipping of the King Salman bin Abdulaziz University Hospital in Kairouan with a grant of $85 million.

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