S Korea to build hospital in Aceh

Banda Aceh (ANTARA News) - South Korea plans to build a world-class hospital in tsunami-devastated Aceh province at a cost of Rp450 billion, an official said.

"Both sides have reached an agreement on the construction of the hospital. It now depends on the availability of land suitable for the hospital," Aceh Deputy Governor Muhammad Nazar said on Monday.

He said the local government had offered South Korea to build the hospital in the province`s eastern coast (Pidie to Aceh Tamiang) or southwestern coast (West Aceh to Aceh Singkil).

"It is unlikely to build the hospital in Banda Aceh where the construction of a world-class hospital funded by the German government is underway," he said.

Aceh bore the brunt of an undersea 8.9 magnitude earthquake and a subsequent tsunami on December 26, 2004, leaving around 200,000 people dead and hundreds of thoundands of others displaced.