The Chinese Ministry of Public Health announced Friday that it would spend 1.5 billion yuan (approximately 181 million US dollars) this year on purchasing ambulances, in-car equipment, and devices for testing and treating infectious diseases.

Another 573 million yuan (some 70 million US dollars) will be used to buy outfits for medical personnel, emergency rescuing equipment, laboratory devices for provincial and municipal disease control centers, vehicles with special purposes and testing machines for AIDS and schistosomiasis (commonly known as snail fever), according to Zhao Zilin, deputy director of the ministry's finance department.

In 2003, the ministry spent more than 800 million yuan (about 96.4 million US dollars) on government procurement. Zhao said the target of this year's procurement will be enlarged from computerized tomography (CT) machine, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) machine, X-ray machine, clinical devices, ambulances to PET-CT machine and high-value consumable materials.

The ministry will organize expert teams to sort out target models at the 13th China International Medical Equipment and Facilities Exposition and Symposia, scheduled from Aug. 9 to 11 in Beijing, Zhao said.