Yangon, Myanmar– 5th December 2015 - The Malaysia Healthcare Travel Council (MHTC) opens the doors to its first overseas medical tourism office in Yangon today, in line with the nation’s plan to strengthen their presence in Myanmar, offering world-class healthcare facilities and services.
H.E. Mr. Mohd Haniff Abd Rahman, Ambassador (Extraordinary & Plenipotentiary) of Malaysia to the Republic of the Union of Myanmar, officiated the new office in Yangon. Mr. Mohd Haniff commented: “The Malaysia Healthcare office will be a welcome addition to Malaysia’s official presence here in Yangon. Through this office, we will be able to effectively address inquiries and facilitate interest in Malaysia’s quality healthcare to the right channels.”
The set-up of the Malaysia Healthcare’s office located at No. (8), Ground Floor, Yuzana Tower, Shwe Gon Daing Road, Bahan Township, Yangon, Myanmar is MHTC’s fifth representative office abroad, following existing offices in Jakarta (Indonesia), Dhaka (Bangladesh), Hong Kong and Ho Chi Minh City (Vietnam). With the launch of the Yangon office, Malaysia hopes to further showcase its positioning as a unique healthcare travel destination, offering quality care, ease of accessibility and high-value affordability for the people of Myanmar. The office shall serve as a medical travel assistance and information centre providing end-to-end facilitation service.
Established in 2009 by the government of Malaysia, MHTC is the primary agency tasked to develop the healthcare travel industry and promote Malaysia as the preferred destination for healthcare travel in the region.
Malaysia has consistently been ranked as one of the top medical travel destinations of the region with more than 880,000 medical tourists arriving from around the world in 2014. There are over 250 private hospitals in Malaysia, but only the most well-equipped hospitals that are tailored to receive and handle medical tourism are approved and registered as participating healthcare providers in Malaysia. The Top 5 most sought-after treatments by health travellers in Malaysia are: Oncology, Orthopaedics, Cardiology, Neurology and In-Vitro Fertilisation (IVF). The best fertility hospital in Malaysia boast a 65% success rate in its IVF treatment against the global average of 50%.
Ms Sherene Azli, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Malaysia Healthcare Travel Council, commented, "Myanmar and Malaysia are neighbours in the ASEAN community. By establishing a physical presence in Yangon, we hope potential patients can reach out to us in a timely manner hence allowing us to serve them better. This will also go a long way towards strengthening Malaysia’s vision of being the preferred healthcare travel destination in the region. We are confident that our physical presence here in Yangon, with its end-to-end service offering, will drive up the number of patients arriving from Myanmar significantly.”
Malaysia Healthcare obligates strict regulatory guidelines for medical offerings, ensuring quality care combined with the commitment and backing of its Government, strong public-private sector partnerships and the unwavering support of its people in providing warm Malaysian hospitality.
Amongst other services, the Malaysia Healthcare office in Yangon will offer information on hospitals offering niche treatments most sought after by the people of Myanmar. Information on hospitals such as the Institute Jantung Negara (National Heart Institute), a leading cardiologic tertiary institution in Malaysia; Beverly Wilshire Medical Centre which specialises in cosmetic and stem cell treatments for the promotion of health, anti-ageing and disease prevention, and more will also be available. Additionally, the MHTC Yangon office will facilitate inquiries about specialised medical treatments that may not be as easily accessible or may be expensive in Myanmar, such as IVF and PGD, cancer treatments, stem cell, heart-related treatments, and so on.
Other services offered are:
The Malaysia Healthcare Myanmar office can be reached at +95 9972 70 6248.
Malaysia recently won the Medical Travel “Destination of the Year 2015” award, a prestigious accomplishment presented by the International Medical Travel Journal (IMTJ) in the United Kingdom. At the same 2015 IMTJ Medical Travel awards ceremony, Malaysian private hospitals also attained accolades in these categories:
