On 12 August, Ambassador Radek Matula handed over two large steam sterilizers and other equipment from the Czech company BMT worth a total of almost 4 million crowns (ca 158 000 Euro) as a humanitarian gift to the Kiev Regional Hospital. The donation will enable this supporting regional hospital to build the first central sterilization unit. It is the second project in the Ukraine being a part of an extraordinary program of the Czech government that responds to the covid-19 pandemic. The first so-called tied gift in the form of medical equipment from Czech companies was received by a hospital in Lviv in May.
Together with the representatives of the Embassy and Mykola Ankin, the director of the hospital, the Deputy Governor of the Kiev Region, Tetyana Stcherbak, and the CEO of BMT Milan Krajcar also attended the handover of the tied gift at the Kiev Regional Hospital.
The Ambassador Matula drew attention to the exceptional attention that the Ukraine receives in the framework of Czech development aid. "Over the last year, we have spent around 2 million euros on projects related to the fight against covid-19 in Ukraine alone. The total aid to the Ukraine has thus doubled in fact," said the ambassador.
The project in Kiev was preceded by the successful completion of a tied gift project at the Emergency City Hospital in Lviv, where the Czech Republic supplied equipment from Czech manufacturers in the value of almost 5 million crowns. In May 2021, the Consul General in Lviv, Pavel Pešek, handed over to the hospital the disinfectors by BMT, electro-coagulators by SMT Prague and biochemical and hematological analyzers by Erba Lachema.
The third project of a tied gift, also in the amount of close to 5 million crowns, is still underway at the Dnipropetrovsk Regional Hospital. "Our goal is to increase the resilience of partner countries, which will help to overcome together the global pandemic and to increase the prosperity in Europe and the immediate neighbourhood," explains Ambassador Matula the intentions of the emergency humanitarian response to covid-19.
However, the program of tied donations also has an economic level and helps Czech exporters. Not only with the award of contracts for the supply of humanitarian gifts, but also with the penetration of the emerging market. Ambassador Matula therefore believes that the project at the Kiev Regional Hospital will have a commercial continuation. "This project offers an opportunity for further cooperation between Czech suppliers and medical facilities in the Kiev region. I expect that BMT and other Czech companies will be able to compete for other contracts and their offers will be assessed correctly," said the Ambassador.
Source:
Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic,
Embassy of the Czech Republic in the Ukraine
15. 09. 2021
