Algeria has earmarked more than $5 billion this year as part of a plan to build ten new hospitals and renovate several others, according to a media report.

Construction tenders are expected to be issued by the end of 2015 for five of the new hospitals, said Abdelmalek Boudiaf, the minister of health, population and hospital reform.

“Work has already started on five hospitals and the government is expected to announce a tender before the end of 2015 for the selection of international companies that will construct the other five hospitals,” he told Zawya.

The ten hospitals are scheduled for delivery by 2019, and the country is only considering international firms to build them, the news service reported.

The new hospitals will add 5,200 beds to Algeria’s current government-run capacity of 67,000, Zawya said.

Algeria has been ramping up its spending on healthcare since 2005, according to figures from the World Health Organisation. It now spends more than $250 a year per person on health, more than double the regional average.