Finance Minister Amir Khasru Mahmud Chowdhury on Tuesday called for effective coordination between the public and private sectors to deliver affordable healthcare, noting that Bangladesh has one of the world’s highest rates of out-of-pocket healthcare spending.

Speaking at a Dhaka event, the minister said merely increasing budget allocations was not enough and that joint discussions on making optimal use of existing resources would serve as a guide for the future.

“We have skilled entrepreneurs, diagnostic centres, private hospitals and a strong pharmaceuticals industry,” he told the gathering at the Hotel Amari. “The question is how to integrate this vast capacity.”

Out-of-pocket expenditure by citizens, he said, must be reduced, making closer public-private collaboration essential to building an affordable system. He described healthcare as a right of every citizen and said the government was moving towards primary and preventive care, with nearly 100,000 health workers being deployed to raise awareness in rural areas.

Chowdhury expressed confidence that the government’s visionary leadership, policy support and the efforts of the country’s entrepreneurs would help deliver quality healthcare to people’s doorsteps in line with the government’s commitment.