HEALTH TRAVEL TO BECOME POTENTIAL GROWTH SOURCE FOR TOURISM AND HEALTH SECTORS

KUALA LUMPUR, June 6 (Bernama) -- The government is encouraging an active
partnership between tourism and health industry players, especially with health
travel as a potential source of growth for the two sectors.

Deputy Minister of Health Rosnah Abdul Rashid Shirlin said her ministry has
been given a mandate to turn health travel into a revenue generating economic
activity.

"We believe this collaborative programme between the tourism and
healthcare sectors can be a huge success to the economy," she said in her speech
at the FAIR International Health Insurance Conference 2011 here Monday.

The collaboration, named Malaysian Healthcare, involves among others, a
total of 35 hospitals, healthcare providers, medical facilitators, travel agents
and many more.

Rosnah said the health travel industry's growth has been encouraging in
recording a 20 per cent growth annually.

On foreign patients, she disclosed that a total of 393,000 of them came to
Malaysia last year.

Meanwhile, Malaysia Healthcare Chief Executive Officer Suresh Ponnudurai
said between January and March this year, the number of tourists seeking medical
care was 112,951, generating an income of RM105 million (US$35 million).

One of the speakers at the conference, he said for the whole of
last year, health tourism raked in about RM379 million (US$126 million).

"According to the Malaysia Health Tourism statistics, the sector will
generate an income of about RM431 million (US$143.66 million) this year," he
added.

Malaysia Healthcare is a group of professionals promoting health travel and
medical tourism to Malaysia.

Meanwhile, the two-day conference organised by the Malaysian Insurance
Institute and the Federation of Afro-Asian Insurers and Reinsurers (FAIR),
gathered about 50 health and insurance industry players to discuss current
trends in the two sectors.