"If we can produce medical devices domestically, we can cut the production and import cost, including the domestic maintenance," the ministry's Director General of Pharmaceuticals and Medical Devices, Lucia Rizka Andalusia.
Speaking after a business matching event with the Ministry of Industry on Wednesday, she said medical devices account for around 30-50 percent of the total medical costs incurred.
Hence, the domestic medical device industry can reduce medical costs along with the implementation of import substitution.
In order to support the independence of medical devices, her side has implemented several strategies, such as collaborating with related ministries and institutions as well as associations to conduct research and development from the upstream to the downstream sales phase.
Administratively, the government has prepared Regulation Number 28 of 2024 concerning the Implementing Regulation of Law Number 17 of 2023 concerning Health (Health Law), she added.
"The development of the medical device industry requires support from government policies, both through increasing the use of domestic medical devices and market guarantees," Andalusia remarked.
Currently, some domestically made medical device products have proven to have better quality as compared to international products, including Indonesian syringes used by the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF), she remarked.
"Indonesian-made syringes are procured by UNICEF for the whole world with prequalification from WHO," she stated.
Earlier, the Ministry of Industry stated that the domestic medical device industry had succeeded in establishing cooperation with Turkey, with a business value reaching USD10.5 million.
The collaboration was marked by a memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed during a business forum titled "Enhancing the Collaboration of Indonesia-Turkey Medical Device Industry" at the 2024 Expomed Eurasia event in Istanbul, Turkey, on April 25-27, 2024.
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Translator: Ahmad Muzdaffar F, Resinta Sulistiyandari
Editor: Rahmad Nasution
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