Tabung Haji, Mara in medical venture

PETALING JAYA: It is understood that Lembaga Tabung Haji and Majlis Amanah Rakyat (Mara) are expected to end up with a total of 45% equity stake in the newly-established Academic Medical Centre Sdn Bhd (AMC) that has a tie-up with world renowned Johns Hopkins Medicine International and Royal College of Surgeons (RCSI) in Ireland to offer courses at the soon to be set up RM2bil Perdana University Graduate School.

Tan Sri Mohan Swami

Tabung Haji is likely to end up with 30% stake while Mara 15% in AMC. The remaining 55% equity will be held jointly by two companies controlled by businessman Tan Sri Dr Mohan Swami (pic). The two companies are Turiya Bhd and Chase Perdana Sdn Bhd.

“The discussions with both Tabung Haji and Mara are still ongoing and we expect a deal to be hammered out by end of this month,'' said a source.

It was announced during Budget 2011 last year that two companies owned by Mohan would partner Johns Hopkins Medicine and RCSI in the RM2bil healthcare project in a public-private partnership. The Government will not take a direct equity interest in this project but it would be represented by its agencies.

“It is the Government's intention to take up to 45% stake in the venture, and it will be via some of its agencies,'' Mohan, who is the executive chairman of AMC told StarBiz. He, however, declined to elaborate further. He is also executive chairman of Turiya and Chase Perdana.

Tabung Haji and Mara will each have a board seat at AMC after the deal is sealed. The current board of AMC comprises Mohan, Datuk Halim@Ahmad Muhamat, Datuk Seri Salleh Tun Said Keruak, and Datuk Dr Jeyaindran. Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad is the advisor to the board.

“There is a lot of interest from other government agencies and also from local and foreign investment houses to take up equity stake in AMC. Most of the foreign investment houses that are keen on a stake are US-based. It is really up to the Government to identify which local agency would partner us in the venture,'' he added.

Asked if Turiya and Chase Perdana would reduce its AMC stake further from 55%, Mohan said: “We are not looking at reducing our stake in AMC ... Johns Hopkins is here because of my relationship with it. We have been working on this for a long time. In fact, it took us nearly 1 years to finalise the partnership.''

“This is also the first time a US program (in terms of a medical school) is coming here and naturally there has been a lot of interest in the project from other government agencies and investment houses,'' he added.

A site in Serdang has been identified for the two medical schools to be built, besides a 600-bed teaching hospital and a life science research centre. A joint-venture agreement between the local parties and Johns Hopkins was signed in November.

Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and RSCI will offer programs at the Perdana University and also provide academic expertise for the programs.

“They (Johns Hopkins) are not in this partnership for profit and their arrival and participation cannot be equated in dollars and cents. They are more than a 100 years old in research and development, education and hospital services.

“They will only get consultancy fees for their staff and will be compensated for expenses and their intellectual property. It is not about making money, it is all about a shared vision of improving healthcare globally,'' Mohan said.

Johns Hopkins has already partnered Turiya via a stake in the US-based Amcare Labs International, which provides pathology and laboratory medicine services and operates medical testing facilities. Amcare is an affiliate of Johns Hopkins Medicine International and Johns Hopkins Medical Laboratories.

Mohan said Turiya planned to expand its healthcare business through acquisitions of companies involved in healthcare with emphasis on health services portal, medical and allied health sciences research, global network of laboratory medicine systems and the provision of medical laboratory management services

Aussie editor says Arab nations can learn from Malaysia, Indonesia

MELBOURE: Arab nations in tumult could learn much from East Asia's giants Indonesia and Malaysia, says The Australian newspaper's foreign editor, Greg Sheridan.

In his highly-respected column Thursday, Sheridan who visited Kuala Lumpur recently, says the collapse of political Islamic moderation, from the Middle East to Pakistan to Turkey, "is profoundly disturbing" but there is one region which is a serious exception Southeast Asia.

"Malaysia is not a perfect democracy. The opposition doesn't get a fair shake from the media. But its elections are clean and several of its state governments are controlled by opposition parties," Sheridan says.

"Above all, both Indonesia and Malaysia are legitimate nations with legitimate governments. If the people don't like their governments, they are more likely to try to change them at the ballot box than by riots."

Sheridan says East Asian regionalism has had a very good effect on these two nations because it has emphasised economic growth, whereas Middle East regionalism has reinforced autocracy and sterile religio-political rhetoric against Israel.

Sheridan has also written about his "long discussion with Malaysia's Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak."

When asked how it was that Malaysia had so comprehensively avoided acts of Islamist terror, Najib, he says, replied: "I like to think it's more than divine intervention. I think it's partly historical and partly it's our policy and our very proactive actions.

"From the historical perspective, the coming of Islam to this part of the world has never been associated with violence. It was always a peaceful conversion to Islam."

"Second, the way we have interpreted Islam, and applied Islam in a very moderate and progressive way. I would even call it an enlightened way.

"Islam is seen here as a religion of peace and understanding and able to relate to other religions. We've been able to put in place policies which allow the peaceful coexistence of other religions in this country."

Saying that Malaysia has substantial oil wealth, like many nations in the Middle East, Sheridan adds Malaysia has not rested on that resource.

It has always pursued an open and diverse economy, and this has become a part of its national identity as well as its economic policy, he says.

Najib, writes Sheridan in the column, says: "I believe that Malaysia, indeed any society, to prosper should be open and should be fully engaged with the global economy."

Sheridan says Malaysia survived the global financial crisis remarkably well.

"Najib offers three reasons for this: a robust and well regulated banking system, an extremely large stimulus package, and a diverse economy such that when manufacturing fell it was compensated by commodities rising."

Sheridan says it it is "a singular good fortune" of Australia that "our Muslim neighbours are two legitimate, practical minded states, focused on economic development in a broadly successful region." - Bernama