PETALING JAYA: Raja Permaisuri Agong Tunku Azizah Aminah Maimunah Iskandariah spoke out today on her trials and tribulations with pregnancy.

At the launch of Alpha IVF & Women’s Specialists, a fertility centre today, Tunku Azizah addressed her 10-year journey of conceiving four children through in vitro fertilisation (IVF) and various other fertility treatments.

“I am not ashamed to tell and share to the world all the problems and difficulties I had with getting pregnant,” she said.

“You yearn for a child and face the world asking you when you are going to have a child. You have to bear the stigma where women are always blamed. Now at least there is gender equality in that men also get blamed.”

Tunku Azizah acknowledged the success rate for IVF treatment back then was very low.

“There is hope nowadays. Back then, the success rate was only 20%.”

Dr Colin Lee, the founder of Alpha IVF Group, said the price for the treatment varied, according to the requirements.

“The first visit is RM100 or RM200 and payment depends on the complexity.

“Some just require fertility tablets and that will cost around RM60.

“Those who need more complicated treatment like IVF will have to pay more, ranging from RM14,000 to RM30,000.”

He said the success of the treatments also depended largely on a woman’s age.

“If a woman is aged 35 and below, for one session of IVF treatment, they can expect a 60% to 70% chance of getting pregnant.

“If a woman is in her late 30s, for one session of IVF treatment, the chances of pregnancy will be a little bit lower at around 50%.”

BEIJING: China’s car-market gloom continued in October as the traditional post-holiday demand peak failed to materialise, leaving automakers with few easy answers to attract buyers back to showrooms.

Sales of sedans, sport utility vehicles, minivans and multipurpose vehicles dropped 6% from a year earlier to 1.87 million units, the China Passenger Car Association said Friday.

The decline was the 16th in the past 17 months, with the only increase coming this June as dealers offered large discounts to clear inventory.

The period known as “Golden September, Silver October” is typically strong for carmakers as consumers like to make big-ticket purchases during the harvest season. Not this year though, underscoring the depth of the historic slump the car industry is mired in.

Demand in the world’s biggest car market has been hurt by a slowing economy that’s made consumers curb spending.

Measures by the government to boost consumption have yet to help, leaving automakers’ profitability challenged and prompting industry insiders to predict mergers and market exits.

Global carmakers such as Volkswagen AG and Honda Motor Co have weathered the slowdown better than some other international brands, which are sputtering along with cheaper local companies due to the cooling demand.

Deliveries of local brands fell 12% in October, the PCA’s secretary general Cui Dongshu said Friday.

Chongqing Changan Automobile Co, a local partner of France’s PSA Group, said last month it plans to sell all of its shares in a 50-50 joint venture after the assembler sold fewer than 4,000 DS cars last year in the country.

China’s hundreds of aspiring electric-vehicle makers are also struggling to convince buyers that it’s worth paying higher prices than opting for cheaper gas guzzlers.

Electric-car sales fell for three straight months through September, as the government — after spending billions of yuan to nurture the industry — scaled back subsidies.

The PCA said Friday that deliveries of new energy vehicles to dealerships slid 45% to 66,000 units last month.

Warren Buffett-backed BYD Co, the country’s biggest maker of new energy vehicles — all-electric, fuel-cell and plugin hybrid cars — last month reported an 89% slump in third-quarter earnings and warned profit could fall as much as 43% this year.

BAIC BluePark New Energy Technology Co, China’s biggest maker of all-electric automobiles, also forecast a 2019 loss in a grim earnings update.

China’s Vehicle Inventory Alert Index stood at 62.4% last month, the second-highest level this year, signaling dealers face rising operational pressure, according to the China Automobile Dealers Association. A reading above 50% indicates high inventory.

Amid the gloomy picture, the silver lining lies with makers of luxury cars and Japanese brand vehicle makers such as Honda, which had a 6.5% sales gain in China last month.

Sales by Volvo Cars surged 27% in October to 11,083 units, according to the company. Industry wide sales of luxury brands rose 14% last month, according to the PCA.

Some analysts are also predicting a gradual stabilisation in the Chinese market as year-on-year comparisons become easier.

PUTRAJAYA, Nov 8 — Pharmaniaga Bhd will act as the interim concessionaire, to distribute drugs and medical supplies for the Health Ministry, for an additional 25-months, when their contract expires later this month.

Health Minister Datuk Seri Dzulkefly Ahmad told a press conference that the Cabinet had decided that an open tender process would take place to appoint the next concessionaire company once the interim period is over.

Dzulkefly explained that the 25-month period was decided to avoid disruptions in services of procurement and distribution of drugs and medical supplies.

“We are giving ourselves 25-months for the ministry itself to be truly capable to do what has been done by Pharmaniaga.

“It could be earlier than 25-months, but we will be having the open tender ourselves,” he said.

Pharmaniaga has been the sole concessionaire for providing services such as warehousing and distribution of pharmaceutical and medical products, manufacturing of generic pharmaceuticals, marketing and sales; research and development.

Their concession contract ends on November 30.

Dzulkefly said the government had also decided to an additional five-year period with Pharmaniaga as the interim concessionaire company, if the ministry is still unable to handle the shift of duties after December 2021.

During this additional period, the company will function mainly to avoid disruptions in procurement and delivery services, while the ministry prepares and equips themselves to handle the tendering process themselves previously handled by Pharmaniaga.

KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 8 — Transport Minister Anthony Loke today acknowledged a recent survey, which revealed that over 87 per cent of Klang Valley residents drive alone to work.

He said a mentality change can counter this culture but admitted that it takes time.

Speaking at a press conference here, Loke said there has already been a positive change in the attitude of Malaysian commuters towards public transportation, as on average, there are 100,000 people who have subscribed to the government-subsidised monthly travel pass.

However, he said more time is needed, especially given that the current LRT3 line expansion is undergoing connectivity upgrading works.

“That is a norm in Malaysian society. But how to encourage the use of public transport? Over the years the government has spent a lot of money in terms of upgrading the infrastructure.

“I don’t agree that our public transportation system is not on par. If you look at our public transport system, we have the brand new MRT. We have upgraded our LRT and so on. So as far as our infrastructure is concerned, we try to provide better facilities, and we want to provide more carrots in order to encourage people.

“That’s why we came up with the monthly pass by subsidising cost and to reduce the public transportation cost, to encourage people to use public transport to go to work. But that of course will take time, in terms of changing behaviours and habits of Malaysian workers,” he said.

Loke said the increase in the number of those subscribing to the monthly travel pass is by itself a progress, “but it will not solve all the problems”.

When asked about the possibility of imposing a congestion charge for cars entering the city, Loke said that the government does have policy ideas to counter the problem, but lamented that Malaysians however, would be apprehensive of it.

“Definitely, if the government wants, we can do. We have many policies too, to discourage people from using their own cars.

“As I said, I do not want to go into that (congestion charge) yet first, because Malaysians always look at things very negatively,” he said, adding that the government wants to instead give incentives to encourage more people to use public transportation.

On Monday, the Centre for Governance and Political Studies (Cent-GPS) said that after surveying close to 5,000 vehicles, it found that 87.3 per cent of Malaysians who work in the Central Business District (CBD) in Kuala Lumpur drives alone to work.

The remaining 11.6 per cent were found to travel with one passenger on board, while only 0.9 per cent travel with two passengers on board.

The think tank has placed its researchers in several stations to tally its findings, namely; Ampang, Seri Kembangan, Sungai Buloh and Petaling Jaya.

Cent-GPS said that from its qualitative study of the result, it was found that many prefer driving alone to work owing to comfort and the need to spend some “alone time” to gather their thoughts or listen to their favourite music and podcasts, without the need to entertain their passengers. It pointed out that the other lingering problem is the issues associated with public transportation.