Kathmandu, 31 October: KOICA officially handed over the newly constructed Mugu District Hospital to the Ministry of Social Development of Karnali Province in the Mugu hospital premises. The Hospital was constructed under the project "Improving Maternal and Child Health Care in Mugu" with a total budget of USD 5 million from the government of the Republic of Korea.  The newly constructed Mugu District Hospital building was virtually inaugurated by Social Development Minister of Karnali Province, Yagya Bahadur Budha Chettri along with the physical presence of Ambassador of the Republic of Korea, Park Chong-suk. The event was attended by Rom Bahadur Mahat, Chief District Officer, local parliamentarians, country director of KOICA, Sunghoon Ko, and other local government stakeholders and implementing agencies.  KOICA constructed a 50-bedded district hospital, provided state of art medical equipment for better access to quality health services for Mugu people. In addition to this, through this project, KOICA in the partnership with UNICEF strengthened the health system to provide quality and equitable MNCH services to the entire Mugu district. The project also implemented activities to improve the behaviour of caregivers, parents, families and communities on MNCH care practice in Mugu.   On the occasion, the Minister appreciated the gesture from the Government of Korea to Nepal and added that the hospital will be a model of Karnali Province. He added the support will be instrumental in continuing its quality health care services without any disruption in post COVID situation for the people of Mugu. Addressing the event, ambassador Park Chong-suk hoped that this assistance will support providing effective and efficient health services to the people of Karnali Province and he expressed that he will do his best to support Nepal’s development process.  KOICA has been supporting Nepal’s health sector development for a long and especially as a response to the COVID-19 pandemic. KOICA supported protection equipment, oxygen concentrators and PCR test kits. The Republic of Korea has been supporting Nepal through KOICA in various areas of health, education, IT and rural development since 1991. People's News Monitoring Service