Mr. Salaheddine MEZOUAR, Minister of Economy and Finance, Mrs Yasmina BADDOU, Minister of Health and his Excellency Mr. Umberto Lucchesi PALLI, Ambassador of Italy to Morocco, met on Thursday February 5th, 2009 at the headquarter of the Ministry to sign a Memorandum of Understanding for a donation of ?1, 735, 430 (MDH 19.44 million) to finance a health care support scheme for the Province of Settat. Mr. MEZOUAR expressed satisfaction with the high-quality cooperation between Morocco and Italy, and thanked Mr. Palli for Italy`s support to the health sector in Morocco. He underlined that Italy had assisted Morocco in the first phase of the basic insurance reform scheme, and is still consolidating its assistance programme.
Mrs. BADDOU also praised the standard of cooperation between Morocco and the Republic of Italy. She also thanked Italy for its assistance in setting up this Memorandum of Understanding to finance this health care support scheme for the Province of Settat. She added that this scheme is structuring and aims at sustaining the extending access to health care facilities to the socially disadvantaged.
For his part, Mr. Umberto Lucchesi PALLI highlighted the importance of this cooperation programme in consolidating the good bilateral relations between Morocco and Italy. He congratulated Morocco for efforts made it to implement structuring reform policies, especially in the highly prioritised social domains.
This socially significant scheme is very much in par with the human development strategy being carried out by the government. It mainly aims at improving health care service for the population of the Settat Province, creating an efficient service and improving sanitary assistance equity. The scheme is thus devised to offer the necessary assistance to basic health care services in the province.
This project is intended to reach the following objectives:
- Rehabilitating and equipping the 23 existing basic sanitary facilities.
- Training some 255 health personnel from communal and urban health centres.
- Assisting all the health delegations of Chaouia-Ouardigha region in the task of planning and supervision.
At the end of this ceremony, Mr. MEZOUAR, Mrs. BADDOU and Mr. PALLI reaffirmed their willingness to work together to consolidate cooperation between Morocco and the Republic of Italy.