KUALA LUMPUR (Oct 5): Pakatan Harapan (PH) on Wednesday (Oct 5) unveiled its strategy document titled “Budget 2023: Safeguarding Malaysia’s Path to Recovery”, just days before the tabling of Budget 2023 on Friday (Oct 7).

The document, amongst others, highlighted the coalition’s support of the Ministry of Health (MOH)'s proposal to increase the ministry's allocation to 5% of gross domestic product (GDP) from the current 2.1%, though it should be increased incrementally in the space of five years.

It said Malaysia’s recent experience in managing the pandemic has clearly shown that the nation’s public healthcare system is “grossly” underfunded.

“Staffing shortages have led to gruesome work hours, causing burnout among medical practitioners.

“Left unaddressed, the medical profession could suffer a higher turnover rate, leaving the nation vulnerable to any subsequent health crises in the future,” the coalition said.

On Aug 15, Bernama reported that the MOH is seeking for public health expenditure to be increased to 5% of GDP to ensure Malaysia has a world standard public health system in the future.

Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin said the benchmark for public health expenditure for an upper middle-income country is between 4% and 5% of GDP.

Nonetheless, Malaysia, he said, is currently only allocating 2.59% of GDP for public health expenditure, thus causing many patients to complain of the long wait to get services such as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) or computed tomography (CT) scan in government hospitals.

Meanwhile, PH has suggested increasing the allocation of subsidies for the agricultural sector to RM3.5 billion from the current RM2.5 billion. It said this will help farmers with the rising cost of animal feed, fertiliser, and pesticides.

“Rising food prices have been a cause for concern for ordinary Malaysians in recent months. In the longer term, beneath the surface of soaring prices of goods we see today lies a larger issue of food insecurity, which may require a longer timeframe to be addressed.

“Malaysia’s self-sufficiency levels of many food items, namely beef, mutton, round cabbage, and others, have declined over the decade since 2011, making us increasingly dependent on imports to satisfy domestic consumption,” PH said.

On supporting post-Covid recovery towards aiding the palm oil sector, PH has, amongst others, proposed channelling a portion of the windfall profit levy from the palm oil industry into a RM500 million green start-up revolving fund for the industry, particularly smallholders, to finance their certification and sustainability initiatives.

“These are core requirements to ensure Malaysian palm oil achieves full sustainability certification status and recognition in the international marketplace,” it said.

Additionally, the coalition also proposed a RM500 million grant for disbursement to oil palm smallholders to achieve much needed productivity improvements.

“Relevant agencies, including involved cooperatives, should work with smallholders to provide technical assistance, know-how, and subsidies, to achieve these goals, which should include strategic objectives such as increasing productivity, replanting of the same and or other value added crops.

“The overall objective is to enable higher income for oil palm smallholders,” PH said.

For the small and medium enterprises (SMEs), the coalition, amongst others, proposed a RM1 billion matching grant on dedicated productivity solutions for SMEs to improve both labour productivity and capital utilisation efficiency. Expenses covered should include the purchase of technological equipment, digital marketing tools or solutions, consultancy, and technical services.

In terms of flood preparedness, PH is proposing an additional allocation of RM2.5 billion on top of flood mitigation efforts as an assistance fund for flood victims of up to RM50,000 per affected household.

It said flood mitigation projects in flood-prone areas should include developing ecological infrastructures and improving drainage systems, as well as vegetation for public sidewalks and rooftops.

Other proposals by the coalition also include broader access to affordable housing by reintroducing a RM3 billion fund to guarantee home-financing for first-time home buyers to purchase affordable housing.