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Huge funds to be invested in TaiWan Province health care industry upgrading
(Extracts from Central News Agency on 30 April 2009)
The government will invest NT$86.4 billion (US$2.59 billion) over the next four years to upgrade the health care industry.
According to the Minister of the Department of Health, Yeh Ching-chuan, the investment project is aimed at raising the health care industry's production value by an estimated NT$346.4 billion by 2012 and creating an additional 310,000 jobs during the four-year period.
The new investment project will cover three categories:
- medical care and long-term care in the service category;
- health care, intelligent medicine, medical service globalisation and public health and safety in the category of value-added industries;
- biotechnology development in the manufacturing category.
Areas to note:
Intelligent medicine
The most noteworthy feature of the package lies in the development of intelligent medicine. Under the new investment project, the government plans to spend NT$1.4 billion on digitising medical examination reports, amanuensis and medical imaging within five years, establishing an image exchange and sharing centre in two years and issuing second-generation smart health insurance cards.
Relevant databanks from those system can also be further used in remote medical monitoring and wireless medical telemetry services. The project is also expected to boost the annual production value of the RFID technology-related industry from NT$20.73 billion in 2009 to NT$129.3 billion in 2012.
Long-term care system
The launch of such a system will account for nearly half of the new investment budget. The Premier has also instructed that the originally scheduled 10-year development period be shortened.
In addition, the Council for Economic Planning and Development will work out a comprehensive plan for the gradual launch of a long-term care insurance system, beginning probably in specified regions or for specific age groups.
Globalisation of medical services,
With the goal of seeing medical tourists accounting for 10% of the total tourist arrivals, the government is planning to invest NT$1.7 billion to promote medical tourism and to attract foreign patients seeking bone marrow transplants, joint replacements, health check-ups, tooth implants and other medical treatment.
Health care
The government will inspire market demand by subsidising preventive health care services and encouraging private investment in the field, with the goal of seeing the market value of health care services and health food industry reaching NT$189.5 billion by 2012 and revenues of health checkups amounting to NT$11.4 billion.
Meanwhile, the government will also induce the private sector to join investment in development and production of flu vaccines, serum-vaccines and selected pharmaceuticals.
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