Tashkent, September 2, 2021 – The Islamic Development Bank (IsDB) and the Government of Uzbekistan signed a US$80.00 million Financing Agreement to finance “Support to Development of Oncology Services in the Republic of Uzbekistan (Phase-II) project”. The agreement was signed on the sidelines of the IsDB Group Annual Meetings held in Tashkent, Uzbekistan.

As per the agreement, the Islamic Development Bank will provide financing to cover part of the cost of a US$ 121.87 million project while the remaining US$41.87 million would be provided by the Government.

H.E. Mr. Sardor Umurzakov, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Investments and Foreign Trade  has stated that the project will significantly support the Government’s reform agenda of the health sector by enhancing access and quality of oncology services. He highlighted that the Government aims to modernize provision of health care services in the country and would continue to implement such initiatives. He also expressed satisfaction over the engagement of several partners which have joined hands under the project, including WHO and IAEA to ensure quality of project delivery.

Meantime, IsDB President and Chairman of IsDB Group, H.E Dr. Muhammad Al Jasser, stated that supporting the health sector is a key priority of the bank’s strategy. He highlighted that Bank is already actively engaged in the health sector of Uzbekistan and has already financed phase-1 of the oncology project, which is yielding promising results. He hoped that this project will also prove useful for development of the country’s health system and enhance access to safe and high-quality oncology services to the cancer patients.  He highlighted that IsDB seeks to promote new technologies through its interventions which will improve the diagnosis and treatment of cancer and will significantly save budget by reducing the number of unnecessary examinations, unreasonable use of expensive anticancer treatment methods, and unnecessary surgical operations. He expressed his desire for further strengthening partnership in the health sector with Uzbekistan.

The project will improve the access to and quality of oncology services in several regions of Uzbekistan as it will cover a wide range of activities, most notably, the construction and rehabilitation of medical and oncology facilities and acquisition of medical equipment and consumables for the oncology centers in several regions of Tashkent.

The IsDB and the Government of Uzbekistan are also partnering with World Health Organization under the project to build institutional capacity in oncology services through formulation of National Cancer Control Plan (NCCP), support for development of national standards/guidelines, and improving overall quality of oncology services. The project will also establish and equip the electronic medical records storage unit and put in place a cancer registry system.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) of the United Nations is also partnering to strengthen the health sector capacity in the fields of radiation protection, diagnostic radiology, radiation therapy and nuclear medicine under this project.

The Project will provide 150,000 cancer patients across Uzbekistan with access to quality oncology services; increase daily oncology outpatient clinical services by 40% (from 3,500 to 4,900) and daily oncology quality in-patient services by 20% (from 2,260 to 2,712).

Under this initiative, 1.8 million women will be enrolled for breast and cervical cancer screening and early diagnosis. The project will ensure that the national legislation and implementation frameworks of radiation protection and safety in medical uses of ionizing radiation are in line with the IAEA Safety Standards.