President Ranil Wickremesinghe said that the future of the country hinges on modernizing the education and health sectors to align with forthcoming challenges and opportunities.
Stressing the imperative of modernizing the education and health sectors to ensure the country’s future prosperity and development, he noted a significant shortfall in capital expenditure for education and health over the past three and a half decades. He said the government plans to increase capital expenditure in these sectors starting from this year.
President Wickremesinghe made these remarks while attending the inauguration of the “German-Sri Lanka Friendship New Women’s Hospital” in Karapitiya Galle, hailed as the largest maternity hospital in South Asia, yesterday (27).
The six-story hospital claims 640 beds, 6 operating theatres, emergency treatment units, intensive care units, laboratories, infant intensive care units, special paediatric units, and state-of-the-art medical facilities. Additionally, it features a water purification and recycling unit.
The German government has contributed Euro 25 million (LKR 3570 million) in this project, in addition to providing medical equipment.
Initially, eight hundred perches were allocated for the hospital’s construction, but later, two additional plots of land were acquired, increasing the total area of the hospital to nearly one thousand perches.
Former Chancellor of Germany, Helmut Kohl, made this significant donation towards the construction of a new maternity hospital in Sri Lanka. This gesture came after witnessing the devastation caused by the tsunami to Mahamodara Hospital Galle, the largest maternity hospital in the southern province, during his vacation in December 2004 at a tourist hotel in Talpe, Habaraduwa.
Following the inauguration of the new hospital, plans are underway to relocate the Mahamodara Maternity Hospital from its current location.
President Wickremesinghe also visited the newly opened maternity hospital to inspect its facilities, including the state-of-the-art surgery rooms.
He also expressed gratitude by presenting a memento to the German Ambassador to Sri Lanka, Dr. Felix Neumann, in appreciation of the generous donation received from the German government.
