The Consul General of Malaysia in Guangzhou Mr. Roslan Abdul Rahman, recently received the Hon. Datuk Liow Tiong Lai during his visit to Guangzhou on 10 November 2008, as part of his official visit to China. The purpose of the Visit is to explore and tap the opportunities available in health and medical tourism. This visit is viewed as part of the latest measures announced by Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak to avert recession.
The Hon. Health Minister Datuk Liow Tiong Lai said in Beijing that the increasing number of services and medical professionals and wider range of facilities would enable the country to ride the health and medical tourism boom. He also said that the increase in revenue from health and medical tourism would also boost economic growth and help the country ride out the global economic crisis.
It is estimated that the medical tourism in Asia will be worth US$4bil (RM14.2bil) by 2012 and Malaysia, as one of the top destinations for medical tourists from around the world, expects to earn up to US$590mil (RM2.1bil) within five years, according to earlier reports.
The Hon. Minister Liow also said that Malaysia, due to its multiracial society, could offer a wide range of traditional medicine such as acupuncture (Chinese), Ayurdeva (Indian) and Malay traditional massage.
He added that Malaysia currently recognised traditional medicine degrees from the Beijing University of Chinese Medicine, Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine and Nanjing University of Chinese Medicine. Two more universities to be recognised later are Tianjin University of Traditional Chinese Medicine and Guangzhou University of Chinese Medicine, he said, adding that graduates from these universities need not sit for any local examination before working at government hospitals.
He said Malaysian universities would be able to offer 12 Traditional and Complementary Medicine courses in future when the Traditional and Complementary Medicine (TCM) Bill is passed next year.
