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NUPCO CEO to Asharq Al-Awsat: We Helped Raise Efficiency In Health Sector Spending

NUPCO CEO Fahad Al-Shebel said that the company is always seeking to offer health services “at the right time, the right place at the right price as well.” (Asharq Al-Awsat)
NUPCO CEO Fahad Al-Shebel said that the company is always seeking to offer health services “at the right time, the right place at the right price as well.” (Asharq Al-Awsat)
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NUPCO CEO to Asharq Al-Awsat: We Helped Raise Efficiency In Health Sector Spending

NUPCO CEO Fahad Al-Shebel said that the company is always seeking to offer health services “at the right time, the right place at the right price as well.” (Asharq Al-Awsat)
NUPCO CEO Fahad Al-Shebel said that the company is always seeking to offer health services “at the right time, the right place at the right price as well.” (Asharq Al-Awsat)

The CEO of Saudi Arabia's National Unified Procurement Company (NUPCO), Fahad Al-Shebel, said the entity has helped enhance spending efficiency over the past years, making it among the contributors to the Saudi Vision 2030.

In an interview with Asharq Al-Awsat, Al-Shebel highlighted NUPCO’s strategy in providing products and health services to its customers on time and at the right price.

NUPCO was established in 2008 and began operating in 2009, with a main objective of raising spending efficiency in purchasing medicines, devices and medical supplies, Al-Shebel said.

It is the Kingdom’s largest provider of standardized procurement services to government agencies working in the healthcare sector.

“During the past years, the company managed to enhance the efficiency of spending significantly and contributed to raising the level of quality of service provided to health authorities. We are proud to be part of the implementation of the Kingdom’s Vision 2030 in terms of spending efficiency,” he underlined.

“The company also aims to improve the quality of life of citizens and residents in the country, by providing better and high-quality health services.”

Stressing that the company’s strategy was to focus on providing unified procurement services to customers in a good and fast way and to ensure the availability of the products they need, Al-Shebel said that NUPCO was always seeking to offer health services “at the right time, the right place at the right price as well.”

The company also provides supply chain services, which include storing and delivering products to hospitals and health centers.

Al-Shebel noted that NUPCO is an independent company established by royal order and operates in complete independence from the Ministry of Health.

“The Health Ministry is one of NUPCO’s most important strategic clients, as annual government purchases represent the largest proportion of the company’s work,” he remarked.

The entity is currently focusing on the public sector and its strategic plan includes a better expansion in 2022.

In this regard, Al-Shebel explained that the services cover the ministries of Health, Defense and Interior, the National Guard, specialized hospitals and medical cities, as well as all government health service providers.

The company’s performance concerning government purchases was good during 2019, according to the CEO, who noted that NUPCO’s purchases exceeded 62% of all government procurements.

“The number of beneficiaries of our services has reached 54, and there is a great expansion. During the past year, we provided our services to new clients from the government health sector,” he said.

Al-Shebel revealed that existing mechanisms relied on the development of standardized evidence and clear specifications that include accurate information and reference prices, to assist in the negotiation process with pharmaceutical or medical supplies companies.

“Building unified evidence is one of the most important mechanisms that we follow. It helps with purchasing certain products in large quantities, rather than buying separate products, which contributes to supporting negotiations with relevant companies and achieving an abundance of spending,” he explained.

Asked about the proportion of locally-made medicine in the overall purchased products, Al-Shebel said: “The percentage of local products in 2019 reached more than 23% of the total value of medicines, devices, and medical supplies.”

“We have local factories that we are proud of, and in the coming years we hope to further enhance local content,” he added.

Regarding NUPCO’s main challenges, the CEO said: “Time is the biggest challenge in supply chains, and we are working to get medicine and medical supplies to the right place in record time.”

“Raising the availability of medicine in Saudi Arabia and ensuring that the required products are available at the required moment is another goal that we are seeking to achieve,” he noted, adding that a third challenge was represented in making drug prices in the Kingdom among the lowest.

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Interviews

Goldrich to Asharq Al-Awsat: No US Withdrawal from Syria

US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Ethan Goldrich during the interview with Asharq Al-Awsat
US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Ethan Goldrich during the interview with Asharq Al-Awsat
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Goldrich to Asharq Al-Awsat: No US Withdrawal from Syria

US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Ethan Goldrich during the interview with Asharq Al-Awsat
US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Ethan Goldrich during the interview with Asharq Al-Awsat

Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Ethan Goldrich has told Asharq Al-Awsat that the US does not plan to withdraw its forces from Syria.

The US is committed to “the partnership that we have with the local forces that we work with,” he said.

Here is the full text of the interview.

Question: Mr. Goldrich, thank you so much for taking the time to sit with us today. I know you are leaving your post soon. How do you assess the accomplishments and challenges remaining?

Answer: Thank you very much for the chance to talk with you today. I've been in this position for three years, and so at the end of three years, I can see that there's a lot that we accomplished and a lot that we have left to do. But at the beginning of a time I was here, we had just completed a review of our Syria policy, and we saw that we needed to focus on reducing suffering for the people in Syria. We needed to reduce violence. We needed to hold the regime accountable for things that are done and most importantly, from the US perspective, we needed to keep ISIS from reemerging as a threat to our country and to other countries. At the same time, we also realized that there wouldn't be a solution to the crisis until there was a political process under resolution 2254, so in each of these areas, we've seen both progress and challenges, but of course, on ISIS, we have prevented the reemergence of the threat from northeast Syria, and we've helped deal with people that needed to be repatriated out of the prisons, and we dealt with displaced people in al-Hol to reduce the numbers there. We helped provide for stabilization in those parts of Syria.

Question: I want to talk a little bit about the ISIS situation now that the US troops are still there, do you envision a timeline where they will be withdrawn? Because there were some reports in the press that there is a plan from the Biden administration to withdraw.

Answer: Yeah. So right now, our focus is on the mission that we have there to keep ISIS from reemerging. So I know there have been reports, but I want to make clear that we remain committed to the role that we play in that part of Syria, to the partnership that we have with the local forces that we work with, and to the need to prevent that threat from reemerging.

Question: So you can assure people who are saying that you might withdraw, that you are remaining for the time being?

Answer: Yes, and that we remain committed to this mission which needs to continue to be pursued.

Question: You also mentioned the importance of humanitarian aid. The US has been leading on this. Are you satisfied with where you are today on the humanitarian front in Syria?

Answer: We remain committed to the role that we play to provide for humanitarian assistance in Syria. Of the money that was pledged in Brussels, we pledged $593 million just this past spring, and we overall, since the beginning of the conflict, have provided $18 billion both to help the Syrians who are inside of Syria and to help the refugees who are in surrounding countries. And so we remain committed to providing that assistance, and we remain keenly aware that 90% of Syrians are living in poverty right now, and that there's been suffering there. We're doing everything we can to reduce the suffering, but I think where we would really like to be is where there's a larger solution to the whole crisis, so Syrian people someday will be able to provide again for themselves and not need this assistance.

Question: And that's a perfect key to my next question. Solution in Syria. you are aware that the countries in the region are opening up to Assad again, and you also have the EU signaling overture to the Syrian regime and Assad. How do you deal with that?

Answer: For the United States, our policy continues to be that we will not normalize with the regime in Syria until there's been authentic and enduring progress on the goals of resolution 2254, until the human rights of the Syrian people are respected and until they have the civil and human rights that they deserve. We know other countries have engaged with the regime. When those engagements happen, we don't support them, but we remind the countries that are engaged that they should be using their engagements to push forward on the shared international goals under 2254, and that whatever it is that they're doing should be for the sake of improving the situation of the Syrian people.

Question: Let's say that all of the countries decided to talk to Assad, aren’t you worried that the US will be alienated in the process?

Answer: The US will remain true to our own principles and our own policies and our own laws, and the path for the regime in Syria to change its relationship with us is very clear, if they change the behaviors that led to the laws that we have and to the policies that we have, if those behaviors change and the circumstances inside of Syria change, then it's possible to have a different kind of relationship, but that's where it has to start.

Question: My last question to you before you leave, if you have to pick one thing that you need to do in Syria today, what is it that you would like to see happening today?

Answer: So there are a number of things, I think that will always be left and that there are things that we will try to do, to try to make them happen. We want to hold people accountable in Syria for things that have happened. So even today, we observed something called the International Day for victims of enforced disappearances, there are people that are missing, and we're trying to draw attention to the need to account for the missing people. So our step today was to sanction a number of officials who were responsible for enforced disappearances, but we also created something called the independent institution for missing persons, and that helps the families, in the non-political way, get information on what's happened. So I'd like to see some peace for the families of the missing people. I'd like to see the beginning of a political process, there hasn't been a meeting of the constitutional committee in two years, and I think that's because the regime has not been cooperating in political process steps. So we need to change that situation. And I would, of course, like it's important to see the continuation of the things that we were talking about, so keeping ISIS from reemerging and maintaining assistance as necessary in the humanitarian sphere. So all these things, some of them are ongoing, and some of them remain to be achieved. But the Syrian people deserve all aspects of our policy to be fulfilled and for them to be able to return to a normal life.