Medical tourism: A billion-ringgit industry for Penang

By Doris Liew, Lim Chee Han

October 2015 PENANG ECONOMIC INDICATOR
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Regional healthcare holds great potential, and Penang is well located to continue benefiting from it.Medical tourism, or health tourism, is defined as the travel of people to a foreign country for medical treatment. In an estimation by Nikkei Asia, the worldwide medical tourism market will reach US$55bil, (RM206bil) in 2015, and will continue to enjoy an annual growth of 20%1.Interestingly, Malaysia recognised very early that medical tourism is a very promising and lucrative part of the overall tourism industry. This...

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PM
Doris Liew

is currently reading Economics at Nanyang Technological University. She labels herself as a Penang girl and dreams of returning to Penang as an economist one day.

PM
Lim Chee Han

received his PhD in Infection Biology from Hannover Medical School, Germany. He is currently a senior analyst in the economics section at Penang Institute.


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