The Department of Health (DOH) officially launched its first Public-Private Partnership (PPP) project for the Universal Health Care (UHC) with a signing ceremony attended by representatives of key public and private agencies on July 23, 2019 at the Century Park Hotel, Manila.

The PPP project is between DOH, the University of the Philippines, the International Finance Corporation (IFC), Singapore Cooperation Enterprise (SCE) and Temasek Foundation (TF). Undersecretary of Health Lilibeth C. David, University of the Philippines President Atty. Danilo L. Concepcion, SCE Chief Executive Officer Kong Wy Mun, and IFC Country Manager for the Philippines Yuan Xu led the signing ceremony.

“UHC provides more opportunities for further private sector collaboration, and I would like to challenge them to come up with innovative strategies that will provide safe, quality, cost-efficient, innovative, and competitive healthcare services for all Filipinos,” says Undersecretary David addressing all the participating public and private agencies with a challenge to push for innovation in the context of UHC.

PPP will serve as a new avenue for various health leaders from the Philippines and Singapore to share their knowledge and experience in public-private partnerships and contribute to the dialogue about health care in the Philippines. The RITM BIological Manufacturing Division’s Vaccine Self-Reliance Project (VSRP) is among the projects in the pipeline supported by PPP.

Following the signing activity was a two-day capacity building session consisted of lectures on the fundamentals of PPP with more than 100 participating health care leaders joining representatives from the Philippines, Singapore, and IFC in the discussions on various health care challenges in the country.

More details on the PPP project are available in the DOH press release.