Thailand eyes to become global hub of medical conferences

BANGKOK, April 20 (TNA) - Thailand now eyes to become a global hub of medical conferences, after the Kingdom has earned nearly 90 billion baht from its hosts of internnational gatherings. Dr Boonruang Triruangworawat, Director-General of the Department of Health Service Support (HSS), under the Thai Ministry of Public Health, told journalists of the goal on Wednesday, urging medical and health schools to, thus, teach their students on the business of meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions (MICE) to boost the nation's potential to realize the goal. Dr. Boonruang pointed out that there were 11,685 conferences worldwide in 2013 when medical science was the most common topic of the conferences. In that year, the HSS chief acknowledged, Thailand was the world's 29th most popular destination for academic conferences and exhibitions, earning the Kingdom up to 88 billion baht from the activities, which also attracted more than one million international visitors. The HSS chief said that the government plans to promote Thailand as a world health center and, to realize the goal, the country is to develop its health academic knowledge and researches and actively host international medical conferences. (TNA)