Malaysia’s government enacted a new emergency law allowing it to use funds derived from oil and gas contributions to pay for vaccine procurement, as it looks to ramp up its COVID-19 vaccination programme. The trust fund takes contributions from state energy company Petronas (PETR.UL) and others involved in petroleum exploitation.
The ordinance will allow the government access to use the 17.4 billion ringgit ($4.23 billion) parked under the national trust fund to secure vaccines “for an epidemic of any infection disease”, according to the law published in the federal gazette.
Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin in March nearly doubled the country’s COVID-19 immunisation budget to 5 billion ringgit, which he expects will help achieve the government’s target of inoculating 80% of Malaysia’s 32 million population by December.
This is an extract from the news article originally published in Reuters.
Image Credits: Reuters
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