RAMALLAH, January 9, 2012 (WAFA) – Japan will fund the construction of and equipping a new health center in the Ramallah area village of Kobar for an amount exceeding $100,000, a press release by the Representative Office of Japan said Monday.

Naofumi Hashimoto, representative of Japan to the Palestinian Authority, and head of Kobar village council, Abdel Kareem Yousif, signed the grant contract of $111,758 by which the Japanese government will fund a project.

According to the contract, the project aims to facilitate access of almost 5,000 residents of nearby areas to primary health care service at the new project.

It said that money will be utilized for the construction of a one floor building and for the equipping the health center with medical equipments, including a portable X-ray machine to end the suffering of the sick due to the insufficient health services.

Hashimoto expressed his country’s determinations to support the Palestinian people from human security perspective as well as from its political stands for their efforts to establish a viable independent Palestinian state and to develop capacities of local institutions in providing basic daily services to people, said the statement.

Japan funded projects in the West Bank and Gaza in the excess of $1 million for eleven projects in 2010 and total assistance to the Palestinians since 1993 reached to about $1.21 billion.

T.R./M.S.