A major South Korean hospital has begun work on a medical service center in
China, in a bid to tap into China's rapidly growing medical services market,
hospital officials said Thursday.
Yonsei University's Severance
Hospital broke ground last work on the VIP Health Promotion Center in the
eastern coastal Jiangsu province, the officials said. The medical center in the
city of Yixing is expected to be completed by the end of 2014.
The new
medical center will pave the way for the South Korean hospital to gain greater
access to the Chinese healthcare market, they said.
"We will cater to
the needs of Chinese customers who are looking for a high level of reliability
in medical services," said a hospital official said.
The medical
center will target VIP customers in China's eastern coastal region, which
includes cities such as Shanghai and Suzhou.
Since 2010, China has
been easing regulations on investment by foreign healthcare providers in its
private healthcare sector.
It was part of the country's move to reform
its healthcare system, in a bid to improve the quality of healthcare services
for its 1.3 billion population.
Chinese authorities are aiming to
establish a healthcare system that can provide safe, effective and low-cost
services to their people.
From 2009 to 2011, China's central
government spent 450.6 billion yuan (US$72.2 billion) on the country's medical
services, according to the government.
Accounting firm Deloitte China
said earlier China's medical services market is growing 18 percent annually and
is estimated to reach 3.16 trillion yuan in 2015.