Govt taking action to resolve ‘problem’

Malay Mail:The Health Ministry has confirmed the Government’s concerns over the new foreign owners of Malaysia’s largest private healthcare service provider having access to information deemed sensitive and critical to the nation.
Its Minister, Datuk Dr Chua Soi Lek, said he is talking to the Economic Planning Unit and Finance Ministry to "resolve the problem".
He said he had reminded the parties involved in privatised healthcare projects of the need to maintain confidentiality as part of their agreement with the Government.
Dr Chua was commenting on The Malay Mail’s Page 1 report yesterday on fears of a breach in national security now that Fomema Sdn Bhd and Pantai Medivest Sdn Bhd are in foreign hands.
Fomema (acronym for Foreign Workers’ Medical Examination Monitoring Agency) was given a 15-year concession in 1997 to supervise, co-ordinate and monitor the medical examination of all legal foreign workers in the country.
Pantai Medivest has a 15-year concession to manage clinical wastes and provide hospital support services to 22 Government hospitals in Negri Sembilan, Malacca and Johor.
Their parent company, Pantai Holdings Bhd, is now under effective control of Parkway Holdings Ltd, a public-listed company in Singapore, after it bought a 31 per cent stake in September to become the single largest shareholder.
Besides Fomema and Pantai Medivest, Pantai Holdings has seven other private hospitals and another under construction in Peninsular Malaysia.
Dr Chua said the Government encourages foreign investments as they are "pro-business" and wants foreign investors to come here.
"However, local and foreign investors alike must adhere to certain obligations and conditions, especially with regards to privatised projects."
He said in Pantai Holdings’ case, it involves two projects in the Ministry’s privatisation programme.
"They are the examination of foreign workers through Fomema and the concession on 22 Government hospitals in the southern region through Pantai Medivest."
He said there are two conditions with regards to privatised projects.
"One, the project must be majority-owned by Malaysians and two, of the Malaysian ownership, 30 per cent must be Bumiputera-owned.
"Quite obviously, the parties involved in the two projects (Fomema and Pantai Medivest) are in breach of the two conditions. We need to come to an agreement on what needs to be done."
Dr Chua confirmed The Malay Mail report that there was a question of national security in the case of both parties.
"Fomema, especially, deals directly with the nation’s foreign labour workforce strategies, having examined some 1.5 million workers.
"The database involving Fomema is also linked directly to the Immigration Department."
He said when the two companies signed contracts with the Government, they gave their commitment to maintain confidentiality at all times.
"I had to remind them recently of this need for confidentiality."
It was reported yesterday that Parkway was learnt to have had dispatched its auditors to Kuala Lumpur last week to look at the books of Fomema and Pantai Medivest.
Both companies are expected to give free and total access to the auditors with regards to their operations.