Malaysia is stepping up efforts to compete with
Singapore and Thailand to attract Myanmar medical tourists.
This
weekend, the Malaysia Healthcare Travel Council, an organisation set up by the
Malaysian Ministry of Health to promote Malaysia as – in the words of its
website – “a unique destination for world-class healthcare services”, launched
a year-long partnership with a local tourism agency. The council also held its
first Myanmar Sales Mission & Exhibition in Myanmar Plaza on June 17 and
18.
Though
the number of Myanmar patients travelling to Malaysia has increased since the
country started offering services, the total still lags far behind those
travelling to Thailand and Singapore.
Malaysia
has a disadvantage over the other two ASEAN members, which have signed visa
exemption MoUs with Myanmar’s government. Thailand’s visa exemption agreement
has already been implemented while Myanmar citizens will be able to travel
freely to Singapore from December. Malaysia is the only ASEAN country that has
not signed a visa exemption agreement with Myanmar.
Mohd
Haniff Abd Rahman, Malaysian ambassador to Myanmar, said his government is
still reviewing visa requirements for Myanmar citizens and possibilities for
the future.
Numbers
of Myanmar medical tourists to Malaysia have risen slowly, according to Vincent
Gool, the regional director for market development of the travel council.
“According
to MHTC figures, in 2015, 12,000 Myanmar patients came to Malaysia compared to
10,000 in 2014,” he said.
“The
biggest challenge we have is awareness. People do not know about Malaysia. I
think everybody knows about [medical tourism in] Thailand, Singapore and India,
but not Malaysia since we started late. In 2012 we were where Thailand and
Singapore were 20 years ago.”
Myanmar’s
healthcare system was long-neglected under the former military government and
now faces a number of challenges for delivering effective and affordable care.
Patients say central hospitals lack basic supplies, medication and equipment
and many forms of treatment continue to be cost-prohibitive.
Dr Mei
Mei Ko, who is chief editor of the medical magazine Ziwaka, said medical
tourism has increasingly attracted patients over the last 15 years.
She said
patients in Myanmar can expect to spend between K5000 and K7000 for just a few
minutes with a specialist, but are willing to spend significantly more, in some
cases upward of K5 million (US$5128), for treatment in foreign hospitals.
“We need
to change our healthcare system to match [the needs of] our patients,” she
said.
Shwe Yee
Saw Myint
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