Vietnamese Minister of Health Nguyen Quoc Trieu has urged the private sector to invest into the healthcare field in a bid to improve the service quality and reduce the financial burden for the state. Trieu made the call at a conference on public - private cooperation in the health sector held by the ministry and the World Bank (WB) in Ho Chi Minh City between May 26 and 27, state media reported. Vietnam is estimated to need VND155 trillion ($8.15 billion) to upgrade hospitals at provincial and district levels and to develop medical techniques, Trieu noted. The Vietnamese government spent 14.6% of GDP on healthcare in 2002, up from 13% in 1997. However, the sum did not meet the society’s rising demand, the minister added. The number of hospital beds in Vietnam is 19.3 for 10,000 people, much lower than an average of 141 hospital beds in many other countries, he attributed. The Southeast Asian country has had 70 foreign investment projects worth nearly $1 billion in the health sector, said the Ministry of Planning and Investment.
