Government invests $7.3m in Malaysia medical tourism sector

The Malaysia government has allocated RM30 million ($7.3m) to boost medical tourism. Medical travel has been identified as one of the National Key Economic Areas for the nation.

The Malaysia government has allocated RM30 million ($7.3m) to boost Malaysian medical tourism.

This is in line with the national economic blueprint where medical travel has been identified as one of the National Key Economic Areas to drive the country towards a high-income nation by 2020.

The Malaysia Healthcare Travel Council (MHTC) has identified Indonesia, Vietnam, China and India as target markets based on the volume of healthcare travellers, as well as the growth potential of these respective markets.

During the Budget 2018 presentation, the Prime Minister revealed plans to:

• Promote Malaysia as the fertility and cardiology hub of Asia, which will be expanded with eVisa services and high-end medical tourism packages
• Introduction of aflagship medical tourism hospital programme with special incentives
• Investment tax allowance for private healthcare facilitiespromoting medical tourism extended until 31 December 2020;
• Double tax deduction for accreditation expensesto be extended for ambulatory care centres and dental clinics;
• Exemption of income on value of increased export of healthcare services rateto be increased from 50% to 100% for private healthcare from 2018 to 2020.
• Atax incentive for investment in four and five star hotels has been extended for a further two years
• The tax incentive for tour operators was also extendedto 202

Malaysia has high demand for fertility and cardiology treatments, especially from its target countries and sees enormous potential.

The flagship hospital programme will support selected hospitals to step up the internationalisation of individual organisations exemplifying enterprise, patient safety, quality care and service, quality management and service experience.

The Department of Immigration Malaysia will be encouraged to ease the entry of medical travellers to the country through the Malaysia Healthcare Traveller Programme (MHTP) that includes the introduction of eVisa (Medical) online application services.

The investment tax allowance for private healthcare facilities for the promotion of healthcare travel is extended until 31st December 2020. Double tax deduction for accreditation expenses is also extended for ambulatory care centres and private dental clinics.