CEBU CITY, Feb. 7 (PNA) — A team from the Asia Public-Private Partnership Institute (APPPI) of Toyo University in Japan has suggested to the Cebu provincial government to grant scholarships to medical students.
The team said the medical scholarships would address the lack of medical personnel to man the 16 provincial and district hospitals.
The APPPI team has been staying in Cebu since Monday to study possibilities and opportunities in the province in terms of socio-economic development that can be undertaken under the PPP scheme.
The suggestions was among its preliminary findings.
Cebu Gov. Hilario Davide III said the province still needed more medical staff, considering that improvement of health facilities was one of his administration’s agenda.
He said, quoting the recommendation of the Japanese team, medical students under the scholarship of the Cebu Capitol would be asked through an agreement that once they graduate and pass the board examinations, they would serve the province-run hospitals for eight to ten years.
Breach of contract would mean refund of the scholarship grant, Davide said.
Davide said this scheme was done in Japan to ensure the availability of doctors in their hospitals.
Davide said the scheme was possible, but the province would still have to study the matter.
APPPI Director Sam Tabuchi said that the data they gathered during their study in Cebu would be brought to Japan for finalization and be presented to Davide in March this year.
He said that they will also introduce interested private companies to partner with the province in the implementation of the proposed projects.
“We are proposing all private sector participation so the public investment is minimized. It’s our way of helping the cities in Asia to grow. We don’t take any money in,” he said. (PNA)