Welcoming private sector investing in healthcare
According to the Minister of Health Mrs. Nguyen Thi Kim Tien, in 2013, the investment resource for health care will be more difficult, the state budget for health care is expected to increase by only 4 – 5% compared with the previous year. At the same time, the health sector will have to save 10% on regular consumption and 10% on the resources of the units to offset with the increase in wages.
For social investment funds, the Ministry of Health calls for strategic investors to participate in health care, so that people can access to high quality health services. Accordingly, a number of projects building university and the satellite hospitals to improve health care quality are implementing.
At the same time, the attraction and improvement of the efficiency of foreign investment in the health sector must be enhanced. Recently, a number of foreign-invested projects in the health sector have been made or committed to disburse, such as Cancer Centre Project – Hue Central Hospital (total budget of 17 million USD, invested by the Austrian Government), GAFI Project (Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization funding commitments, with the total capital of 47 million USD), provincial hospital development project (Japan International Cooperation Agency – JICA, with the total capital of 104 million USD).
In addition, in a recent conference held by the Ministry of Health in collaboration with the American development organization, the U.S Ambassador Mr. David Shear said that the United States pledged to support Vietnam to implement public private partnership projects (PPP) in the health sector. In the short term, a task force will be established to promote PPPs in the health sector.
(Source: BDT, ANT Consulting)