chapter 6 - Malaysia Productivity Corporation ( MPC)

providers now have employees who are fluent in
many languages. The healthcare providers are also
willing to provide interpreters to fulfill the needs of
international health travellers.
One of the best practices to promote health
tourism in Germany is through hospital catalogue
which provides information on the range of
treatment offered and the quality of results in all
Germany hospitals. So far, Malaysia had introduced
Health Tourism magazine as well as a website to
provide better information to the potential health
tourists. Malaysia Health Travel Council (MHTC)
is given responsibility to promote Malaysia as
health tourism hub. MHTC collaborated with major
national airline to promote Malaysia through its inflight
magazine and arrival videos.
The Government provided platform in terms of
policies changes and investment incentives. To
attract more medical specialists to come to Malaysia,
their spouses who qualified as a professional would
automatically offered a temporary employment
pass.
To encourage productive investment among
private hospitals, Government offers a 100%
tax exemption of qualifying capital expenditure
incurred for a period of five years for the
construction of new hospitals or for expansion,
modernisation, or refurbishment of existing
hospitals. Tax incentive is also given to hospitals
that set up International Patients Unit in an effort to
increase foreign tourists. The healthcare providers
are also encouraged to obtain international
accreditation by offering double tax deduction for
expenses incurred in obtaining the accreditation.
To attract more health tourists, the Government
CHAPTER 6
has extended the visa period from one month
to six months. Foreigners entering Malaysia for
medical treatment on emergency via ‘Visa on
Arrival’ would be allowed to convert their status to
social visit pass upon recommendation of private
hospitals registered under the Ministry of Health
for promotion of healthcare travel.
To support the development of generic drugs,
the Government has shortened the compulsory
services for pharmacists from three to one year
to increase the supply of pharmacists in the
private sector. All of these initiatives were part of
Government efforts mapped under ETP in line with
its focus to enhance collaboration between public
and private sectors.
Progress of Entry Point Projects (EPPs)
There are 13 EPPs and one business opportunity
(BO) identified under healthcare services. The EPPs
that have direct impact on healthcare services are
discussed below:
EPP1: Mandating private insurance for foreign
workers
The Government has successfully mandated
compulsory insurance scheme on all foreign
workers. To date, 25 insurance companies and two
third party claims administrators have registered
to participate in the scheme. By end of 2011, the
total of 1.4 million foreign workers have registered,
surpassed the targeted number of 1.2 million.
EPP2: Creating a supportive ecosystem to grow
clinical research
A total of seven new Clinical Research Centers
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