After selecting last November the Banco de Costa Rica to finance and manage a health infrastructure trust fund, the Costa Rican Social Security Agency (CCSS) which runs the country’s health services and the BCR signed the agreement last month to proceed with building health infrastructure throughout the country.

According to María del Rocío Sáenz Madrigal, who this week was asked to resign as executive president of the CCSS, the decision was adopted with the objective of building 30 health areas, that will include 22 bank branches, and a storage and distribution center for logistics management.

This trust project, the largest ever signed by the BCR, and the first for the CCSS, will involve an investment of close to US$471.7 million, construction of 161,286 square meters, and will ultimately benefit at least 1.6 million people.

The CCSS Board of Directors has set as a priority to close the gap in the basic level of health care services, and initiate an additional 194 basic comprehensive health care teams (called EBAIS), 50 of which will be established in 2017.