World Bank grants USD 240 million loan to Serbia for better healthcare system and stronger deposit insurance

The World Bank (WB) has lent USD 40 million to Serbia for the second healthcare project in this country as well as USD 200 million for the deposit insurance strengthening project, the WB announced in a release on Wednesday.

The aim is to improve the efficiency and quality of Serbia's health care system as well as to strengthen both financial and institutional capacity of the Deposit Insurance Agency (DIA).

Allocations for healthcare in Serbia account for about 10.4 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP). It is of crucial importance for Serbia to boost the cost-efficiency of healthcare expenditures, especially considering the context of fiscal limitations and increased needs of the old-age population for health care, the WB said in its release.

- The second healthcare project in Serbia will support the improvement of health care funding and the efficiency of public procurements for drugs and medical products - says Tony Verheijen, the head of the WB office in Serbia.

A centralized public procurement implemented as a pilot project for a third of the drugs used in the public healthcare system has cut the expenditures for 2014 by EUR 25 million, says Tony Verheijen.

- One of the primary growing problems in Serbia are malignant diseases. The new equipment that will be financed under this project will improve radiation therapies - says Timothy Johnston, the leader of the WB Healthcare and Nutrition Sector for the region of Europe and central Asia.

Serbia will also benefit from the deposit insurance strengthening project. DIA's reserves are used up, and USD 200 million from the World Bank should fill that void. DIA spent all its reserves while solving the problems of several failed banks.