KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 11 — The government will conduct pool procurement of RM500 million worth of medicines across Ministry of Health, army, and public university hospitals, according to Budget 2020.
“As an example of how the government will continue to innovate to optimise expenditure, the government will centralise and combine the tender and procurement of RM500 million worth of medicine across the Ministry of Health, Ministry of Defence and university hospitals to generate savings from bulk purchase,” Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng announced today when tabling the federal government budget.
He also said the government would intensify “Buy Made In Malaysia” product campaigns.
“To support our local medical device industry, the government will introduce an initiative to encourage local producers to upgrade equipment and tools used in public clinics and hospitals, based on a minimum allocation of 30 per cent.”
The government will also allow pre-retirement withdrawals for private retirement schemes (PRS) for the purposes of health care and housing, based on the same terms as the Employees Provident Fund (EPF).
