CEB and Sector 6 in Bucharest join forces to build a state-of-the-art hospital
Bucharest (31 May) – The Council of Europe Development Bank (CEB) and Bucharest Sector 6 Municipality marked a significant milestone today with the signing of a €72.9 million loan agreement, backed by the Invest EU Fund, which will enable the construction of a greenfield hospital.
The agreement, signed by Sector 6 Mayor Ciprian Ciucu and CEB Vice-Governor for Target Group Countries Tomáš Boček, signifies a joint commitment to enhance healthcare infrastructure in Romania. The construction of this new hospital is expected to last three years, with a total budget of €145.8 million. The CEB loan will also be bolstered by an InvestEU Advisory Hub grant, in the amount of €1.8 million, to fund the project management expenses during the preparatory and design phase, so as to ensure adherence to best practices.
This Sector 6 hospital has been designed to respond to the needs of the local population and is the first public hospital of this size to be developed by a municipality in Romania; additionally, it is the first state general hospital built in Bucharest by a local public authority in the last 45 years. The project will be developed through a Design-Build-Equip-and-Maintain contract to avoid delays in the hospital delivery. The project has been prepared with the support of TUD Group, financial and technical adviser from the conception to financial close.
“I am very excited; this is the project of my life, my passion project. We have the land, we’ve already buried the utility networks, so the construction site has somehow begun. Now it also has funding! A project becomes serious when it has funding; otherwise, it is just an idea, an intention.” said Ciprian Ciucu, Mayor of Sector 6 of the Municipality of Bucharest.
“We are proud to support this ambitious project, which underscores our commitment to improving access to quality medical services for all Bucharest residents and, in particular, for the underserved populations,” said Tomáš Boček, CEB Vice Governor for Target Group Countries.
The new hospital is poised to significantly improve healthcare services with over 300 beds, encompassing eight departments, eight operating rooms, seven birthing rooms and a top-tier emergency department.
Medical services will focus on minimally invasive procedures and treating patients in outpatient care, when possible, to avoid unnecessary hospitalization. This offering of outpatient services will be complemented by inpatient services in the identified areas such as surgery, neonatology, gynecology-obstetrics, cardiology, internal medicine, neurology and intensive care.
Media Contacts:
- Bucharest: Wassila DRIDI, DRIDI@coebank.org, +33 7 87 70 22 36
- Paris: Jelica Vesic, VESIC@coebank.org, +33 6 03 12 57 80
About the CEB
The Council of Europe Development Bank (CEB) is a multilateral development bank with an exclusively social mandate from its 43 member states. The CEB finances investment in social sectors, including education, health and affordable housing, with a focus on the needs of vulnerable people. Borrowers include governments, local and regional authorities, public and private banks, non-profit organizations and others. As a multilateral bank with a triple-A credit rating, the CEB funds itself on the international capital markets. It approves projects according to strict social, environmental and governance criteria, and provides technical assistance. In addition, the CEB receives funds from donors to complement its activities.
The CEB and Romania
Romania joined the CEB in 1996 and since then, the Bank has approved a total of 44 projects for a total of €2.5 billion benefitting the sovereign, sub-sovereign and financial institutions.
The CEB portfolio in Romania currently includes 21 projects, for a total of €1.7 billion, across a variety of sectors such as the rehabilitation of cultural buildings, social housing, penitentiary infrastructure, infrastructure for water management, flooding prevention, healthcare, education, microfinance and municipal infrastructure. In 2023 alone, four new projects were approved, worth €163 million, including the one to Bucharest Sector 6.
Romania also benefitted from six grants from the CEB for a total of €3.9 million, including four approved in 2022, including to support the response to the migrants arriving in Romania fleeing the war in Ukraine.
