The founder and primary sponsor of the Project is Dr. Nayeem Azim, who owns 100% of the Hospital with his brother, Mr. Khoshhal Azim. Dr. Azim was born in Afghanistan and completed his primary and secondary education in Kabul. He immigrated to the UK from Afghanistan as a refugee in 1993 and qualified to practice medicine in the UK in 1997. Dr. Azim founded ACOMET in 2003, committing himself to creating a center of excellence in Afghanistan.

The total project cost is estimated to be $13.3 million, which includes the construction of the hospital (which has already been completed) and the medical equipment. IFC has been requested to provide debt financing of up of to $4.5 million to finance the acquisition of the outstanding medical equipment.

4.50 million (USD)

Product Line	IFC Investment (million USD)
Risk Management
Guarantee
Loan	0.0
Equity	4.50

* These investment figures are indicative

ACOMET is located in Kabul, Afghanistan, within Aliabad Hospital Compound and adjacent to Kabul Medical University. This location and land lease was approved by the Afghan Ministry of Higher Education.

The development impacts of this project include:

- Delivery of high quality health care services to Afghan people: Afghanistan is among the least developed countries in the world. ACOMET will bring much needed health care capacity and new services to Afghanistan.

- Training critically needed medical workers: Due to the recent conflicts in Afghanistan, many medical professionals emigrated from the country. This combined with the general global demand for health care workers has caused a critical shortage of trained workers in Afghanistan. ACOMET will focus on providing quality medical education to doctors and nurses in Afghanistan and provide valuable internship opportunities to students. Furthermore, the health care workers who remained in Afghanistan during the war were professionally isolated from the rest of the global medical community receiving poor out-dated training. ACOMET will offer continuing education to bring its employees up to speed with global standards.

- Retain income in Afghanistan: Hundreds of Afghans travel to neighboring countries for medical treatments each year due to the lack of quality facilities locally. The Hospital will be able to treat a portion of these patients keeping the income in the country and reducing the hardship of travel for patients and their families. Also, the opportunity to receive high quality medical treatment locally will save Afghans the high cost of travel and medical expenditure abroad.

- Demonstration of excellent clinical standards and corporate transparency: ACOMET is committed to achieving excellent clinical standards and maintaining transparent corporate practices. Through this, it will act as an example to other private hospital and other businesses in Afghanistan.

In addition to the provision of long-term financing, IFC’s expected role and development contribution will include:

- Positive signal: IFC’s participation in this project will send a strong signal to foreign investors that it is possible to finance feasible social sector projects in Afghanistan despite perceptions of high country risk and challenging business environment.

- Global relationships in health care sector: ACOMET views IFC as a long-term credible international strategic partner and resource for strategic and operational advice and guidance, given IFC’s broad global and regional project and sector experience. IFC will use its knowledge of the health care sector and the investment climate of the MENA region to assist ACOMET in finding an operating or financial partner in the future.

- Corporate governance: IFC’s monitoring, reporting requirements, and financial covenants will help the Company develop its corporate governance and internal systems.

While all Performance Standards (PSs) are applicable to this investment, IFC’s environmental and social due diligence indicates that the investment will have impacts that must be managed in a manner consistent with the following PSs:

- PS1: Social and Environmental Assessment and Management Systems;
- PS2: Labor and Working Conditions;
- PS3: Pollution Prevention and Abatement; and
- PS4: Community Health, Safety and Security.

The key environmental, social, health and safety associated with the project include:

- Emissions to air and water;
- Implementation of an environmental, health and safety management system;
- HR practices and working conditions;
- Occupational health and safety, particularly including life and fire safety, hygiene control mechanisms, and potable water supply;
- Management of hazardous materials, liquid, solid wastes; and
- Community health and safety and community engagement.

Given that the proposed project location is in an urban neighborhood, adverse impacts on environmentally sensitive areas are not expected to occur. The nature of hospital operations is such that it will be possible to readily design and implement engineering and management measures to mitigate any adverse impacts resulting from the project that are not expected to be diverse or irreversible and will be limited to the project site. For these reasons the project has been classified as a Category B. A detailed description of the environmental and social assessment undertaken can be found in the Environmental and Social Review Summary (ESRS) also available on IFC’s website.