Phnom Penh (FN), June 8 – Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation, Prak Sokhonn requested the Swiss government to continue supporting and funding Kantha Bopha Hospital with a view to saving more children in Cambodia, said spokesperson of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation.

In a meeting with Swiss Ambassador to Cambodia, Ivo Sieber, at the Ministry today, June 8, 2016, Senior Minister Sokhonn said Kantha Bopha Hospital is critical to saving lives especially small children.

In response, Ambassador on Ivo Sieber said the Swiss government will continue to support Kantha Bopha Hospital as much as it can, said Chum Sounry, the Ministry’s spokesperson who added that Sokhonn also thanked the Swiss government for its support to the hospital in the past.

Switzerland provides funding support of $4 million per year for the operation of the hospital. Starting in 1994, the total funding support to Kantha Bopha Hospital is around $55 million as of the present.

Dr. Beat Richner, founder of Kantha Bopha Hospital, said earlier that between 1992 and 2015 Kantha Bopha Hospital had spent around $573 million on treatment of children critically ill, on children’s medical examination and consultations, and on construction of the five hospitals with state-of-the-art equipment for diagnosis and treatment as well as on a variety of medications.

Of the amount of $573 million, the hospital received 8 percent from the Cambodian government, another 8 percent from the Swiss government and the rest was from charitable organizations and individuals, mostly individual persons in Switzerland.

=FRESHNEWS