Malaysia has geared itself to become a high-income developed nation by 2020. Working towards that goal, the government had launched the economic transformation programme (ETP), which is expected to boost Malaysia's gross national income (GNI) per capita to more than $15,000 in 2020 from a mere $6,700 in 2009.

In May 2010, a large workshop was run to identify 12 national key economic areas (NKEAs). NKEA has been defined as a driver of economic activity that has the potential to directly and materially contribute a quantifiable amount of economic growth to the Malaysian economy. One among the 12 identified NKEAs is healthcare, which has a growth target of $13.57 billion (RM 42.2 billion) while generating more than 260,000 jobs by 2020.

Working towards this goal, the Ministry of Health (MoH), Malaysia, and Novartis Malaysia signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to enter into a partnership to build various healthcare capabilities to further enhance the ETP. Novartis is taking measures to further strengthen the presence in the South East Asian countries. Earlier in March 2012, Novartis Thailand extended its seven year long partnership with the National Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (BIOTEC), Thailand, to explore the biodiversity in Thailand and now Novartis Malaysia is partnering with MoH, Malaysia, to help the booming healthcare industry of the country.

BioSpectrum takes a look at the situation in Malaysia and connects with Mr Avinash Potnis, president, novartis Malaysia. He explains the MoU and further expands on how the company will be contributing towards the partnership.

Please tell us about your partnership with the Ministry of Health, Malaysia?