VAMED provides solutions in health care

VAMED's largest shareholder is Fresenius, the market leader in dialysis equipment. Meanwhile, VAMED group has completed more than 900 projects in more than 90 countries across five continents. With these projects they focus on four pillars in health care, namely prevention, acute care, rehabilitation and nursing care.

In the Netherlands, VAMED has been active since 2003. The Dutch branch focuses mainly on the planning, construction, furnishing, commissioning and maintenance of hospitals and medical technology.

The Project/Export Finance Manager at VAMED: "We provide greenfield turnkey solutions for healthcare worldwide. You can think of complete hospitals, including management, but we also do management and service maintenance. The Dutch branch operates worldwide. We have already done several projects in Ghana, Bosnia, Sri Lanka and Bolivia, among others, but also just in the Netherlands itself."

VAMED has been operating in Ghana for more than 20 years. "When you operate in a country, you often employ people there. That is therefore a good basis for us to expand. For example, this year we started a project for five new outpatient clinics and the renovation of an existing location. The goal of these smaller outpatient clinics is to relieve the burden on regional hospitals. In this way, we bring health care closer to the people. This has the advantage of less travel time for patients. Thus, they see a doctor faster, because they have to miss less revenue and can then be helped faster and better. Ultimately, this leads to a decrease in sick days and a healthier workforce. And so even the construction of these small polyclinics contributes to a country's economic prosperity."

The outpatient clinics project in Ghana came about in part with an ORIO grant. This was a Development Infrastructure program of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs that was implemented by RFO. This program has since been replaced by the new facility DRIVE (Development Related Infrastructure Investment Vehicle). DRIVE also aims to promote accessible and functional infrastructure in developing countries. Exporters active in public infrastructure can claim this grant.

The total price of the project is €26 million. This amount is for the construction of the five outpatient clinics, the supply of the equipment and operation and maintenance during the first five years after completion. For the part of the transaction not financed by the ORIO grant, VAMED took out export credit insurance with manufacturing risk with Atradius Dutch State Business.

VAMED Netherlands explains, "When you are in talks with parties such as the Ghanaian Ministry of Health and Ministry of Finance, it sometimes takes a very long time before a project can start. And with these kinds of projects, a good cooperation with parties such as Atradius DSB and RVO is very pleasant. But the bank is also an important party in this, and in our case ING has continuously supported us throughout the project."

Of course, for an international organization like VAMED, there are still some challenges when it comes to projects in countries like Ghana. VAMED: "We are always looking for new projects and for this we especially look at the medium-term policies of governments.

What do they want to invest in and where is a country's health care on the agenda? Political developments are very important because of this. If elections are imminent, this can be accompanied by political turmoil or indecision. But we also sometimes face restrictions from the IMF that really only allow us to offer concessional financing.

In addition, we have to consider the logistical challenges or seasonal influences that can complicate the projects. For example, we cannot start construction during the rainy season. It is therefore important to take all such aspects into account when planning a project."
Work on the polyclinics is currently underway in Ghana, and if there are no setbacks, completion is by the end of 2021.