Iskandar Malaysia aim to be a cosmetic surgery hub

Iskandar Malaysia aim to be a cosmetic surgery hub

PASIR GUDANG: Johorians are out to make Iskandar Malaysia a leading centre for cosmetic and constructive surgeries in the region.

Mentri Besar Datuk Mohamed Khaled Nordin (pic) said the Johor state could emulate the success story of South Korea in the cosmetic surgery / plastic surgery sector.

He said South Korea had been able to attract patients from all over the world to undergo plastic and cosmetic surgery in the country and Iskandar Malaysia could match this.

“Iskandar Malaysia has the ecosystem to transform and develop itself into a new regional player in the healthcare sector including in the cosmetic plastic surgery segment,” he told reporters at the opening of the RM73mil eight-storey KPJ Pasir Gudang Specialist Hospital owned by Johor Corp’s public-listed entity KPJ Healthcare Bhd.

Mohamed Khaled said as Asian society was becoming more affluent, Asians in general including Malaysians were more than willing to spend money to look good.

“We have identified the health sector as one of the main revenue earners for Johor in the long run and we want to establish Iskandar Malaysia as a healthcare hub,” he said.

Mohamed Khaled said this could be achieved as Iskandar Malaysia already have 15 private specialist hospitals now and the figure would increase to 20 within the next few years.

On that note he said, KPJ Healthcare Bhd had conducted a feasibility study to turn Iskandar Malaysia into a healthcare hub and the company had recently submitted its findings to the Johor state government.

Mohamed Khaled said the state economic planning unit would launch an action plan to seize the business opportunity by focusing on six clusters to develop the healthcare sector.

They are healthcare services, support services, caring for the aged, human capital development, manufacturing and research and development activities.

“A concerted effort is needed from the private sector to promote, develop and transform Johor  Iskandar Malaysia into a regional healthcare hub, whereas the government will play its supporting role,” he said.


Source: www.thestar.com.my/

Healthcare and medical hub in Iskandar Malaysia

 Johor government wants to promote medical tourism to realise Iskandar Malaysia to become healthcare and medical hub in the region, taking advantage of its strategic location in South East Asia and high quality services with cheaper medical bill and affordable healthcare compare to its competitor Singapore.

Johor Menteri Besar Khaled Nordin said that there are about 14 private hospitals in Iskandar Malaysia. Most of the facilities in these private hospitals received many patients from nearby countries like Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand and regional countries.

KPJ Healthcare, a private hospital chain under Johor Corporation has been assigned by Johor government to draw a master plan associate to transforms Iskandar Malaysia into healthcare and medical hub in the region.

“With the right planning, we can turn Iskandar Malaysia into a medical tourism focused healthcare and medical hub as we are located next to Singapore. Besides of providing healthcare and medicines, services like sterilisation should also be looked into as the costs of such services tend to be higher in Singapore hospitals,” he said after launching the KPJ Healthcare Camp in Kampung Nelayan, Permas Jaya here yesterday.

“KPJ has four hospitals in Iskandar Malaysia and is indirectly linked to the state government. I am sure that with their expertise, KPJ are able to come up with an effective plan for a sustainable healthcare and medical hub for example in the next five years,” Menteri Besar Khaled Nordin said.

“We always talk about developing Iskandar Malaysia and the Johor state but it is not only restricted and focused on new housing developments. There should be a balanced development in the services and healthcare sectors as well,” he added.

Medical tourism has been popular in neighbor countries like Singapore and Thailand. Many Indonesians flight to Singapore every year for healthcare and medical checkup. Iskandar Malaysia should seize the opportunity of its expertise in healthcare and medical, affordable healthcare and strategic location to attracted Indonesian.

Columbia Asia Hospital at Afiat Healthpark

Healthcare and medical tourism

Healthcare Industry

Healthcare Industry 

Healthcare services is one of the rapidly growth industry in the world. PriceWaterhouseCoopers in its HealthCast Report forecasts that health spending in the OECD countries is expected to triple to RM31 trillion (US10 trillion) by 2020 and to account for 16% of GDP in OECD countries. The Asia Pacific market comprises over a quarter (27%) of the total global healthcare market and its market share is expected to expand further to 40% of total global healthcare revenue by 2015, as forecasted by Frost & Sullivan.

There factors that contribute to the healthcare industry growth include:

1. Income and demographic shifts have seen rising affluence fuelling demand for high quality healthcare services including choice of healthcare destination (medical tourism), and aging population catalyzing growth of nursing care and other supporting healthcare services.
2. Urbanisation, fast-faced and stressful lifestyle has led to shifts in dietary habits and the rise in the incidence of so-called developed country illnesses, such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes and cancer driving the demand for specialists’ healthcare services such as heartscan and kidney dialysis centres.
3. Higher incidence of lifestyle diseases have resulted in new medical drugs and treatments, as well as traditional complementary medicine such as traditional Chinese, Malay and Indian origins and organic treatments and wellness.
4. Greater consumer education has created awareness of nutrition, product safety, and other natural and organics approaches to health maintenance, including wellness services.

There are a lot of opportunities for healthcare services in Iskandar Malaysia:

• Capture a share of the significant and high growth Asian market

• Tap on Malaysia’s large private healthcare market

• Competitive and high quality healthcare services

• Multi-lingual and quality workforce at affordable cost

• Establish regional COE (Centr Of Excellence) for healthcare research and innovation, with best in class facilities

• Various fiscal and non-fiscal incentives

The healthcare industry priority sub-sectors can be segmented into six categories:

1. Specialist Medical Services

•  Specialists in lifestyle disease   eg: dialysis centre, heartscan

•  Dental specialist services

• Ambulatory care services

2. Diagnostic Medical Services

• Diagnostics (including pathology laboratories)

• Telemedicine

• Integrated lab services

3. R&D COE for healthcare

• Healthcare R&D

• Healthcare biotechnology

• Education – medical learning institutions

•  CRO  e.g. clinical trials

4. Traditional Complementary Medicine

• Acupuncture

• Ayurdevic

• Homeopathy

5. Wellness Services

• Rejuvenation centres

• Retirement and nursing homes

• Rehabilitation centres

6. Medical Equipment Manufacturing

•  Cardiovascular devices

•  Orthopaedic devices

• In-vitro diagnostic devices

• Electromedical equipment

• Wound care products

• Homecare products

Reason for investing in healthcare Iskandar Malaysia:

1. Catchment: Large high growth markets in Asia

As Malaysia’s southern gateway, Iskandar Malaysia is emerging as a key regional hub to servicing neighbor ASEAN, Asia Pacific and other global markets (Europe, Middle East and other western countries).

2. Connectivity: World-class, integrated and multi-modal network connectivity.

World-class infrastructure with excellence multi-modal connectivity linking international airports, international seaports, integrated road and rail networks and Information, Communication and Technology (ICT) high speed broadband highways, all supporting shorter traveling and communication times to regional and global markets.

3. Comprehensive: Integrated planning and development

Iskandar Malaysia’s policies are aligned to national healthcare industry strategies and will benefit from Malaysia’s medical tourism initiatives, apart from excellent integration with other supporting metropolis amenities and facilities.

4. Capabilities: English-speaking, yet Asian multi-lingual talent pool

Emerging choice country of medical tourism, with English-speaking wide talent pool of foreign and domestic trained medical professionals, yet multi-lingual and multi-cultural, and plenty of healthcare services group

5. Cost Competitiveness: Affordability price

Affordability price from human capital, real estate (land and buildings) to cost-effective operations.

6. Conducive Environment: Dynamic and stable

Stable government, resilient economy, easy and competitive place for doing business, attractive environment for business and people to “Invest, Work, Live, and Play”, plans to transform Iskandar Malaysia into a vibrant metropolis.

Healthcare Industry Iskandar Malaysia

Iskandar Malaysia Flagship

Iskandar Malaysia Flagship 

Iskandar Malaysia has a total johor land size of 547,669 acres. Within Iskandar Malaysia, 5 flagship zone are identified for 9 key economic sectors which have total size of 92,535 acres johor land, 50% of Singapore size.

Following the official launching of Iskandar Malaysia in November 2006, Iskandar Regional Development Authority IRDA was set up on February 2007 by a Federal Act of Parliament known as the Iskandar Regional Development Authority Act 2007. The IRDA Act 2007 spells out its functions and responsibilities in relation to establishing national policies, directions and strategies for the development of the special economic zone corridor.

The 5 flagship zone of Iskandar Malaysia and its key economic drivers:-

Flagship A : Johor Bahru City Center

As the southern gateway to Malaysia, Johor Bahru plays host to several key economic activities such as financial, cultural and urban tourism for Johor.

Flagship B : Nusajaya

A key component to Iskandar Malaysia and one of the largest real estate investment in South East Asia, Nusajaya’s key economic activities include education and medical tourism, entertainment and recreation, state administration, finance and biotechnology.

Flagship C : Western Gate Development

Known as one of the world’s major container ports, Tanjung Pelepas economic cluster houses several key economic activities such as logistics, free zone industrial area, regional distribution and international procurement, and oil storage terminals.

Flagship D : Eastern Gate Development

A renowned manufacturing hub in the south region of Malaysia, Pasir Gudang is the flagship D of Iskandar Malaysia. The key economic activities that are taking place include manufacturing (encompassing  electronics, petrochemicals and oleochemicals), as well as oil storage terminals.

Flagship E : Senai – Skudai

As the transit town that links Iskandar Malaysia to the world, this township, which is also known as flagship E contains important economic activities such as logistics, manufacturing (especially in hi-technology and aerospace-related), tourism (luxury shopping destination) and Cybercity.

Iskandar Malaysia’s 9 key economic sectors :-

1. Food & Agro Processing – Top 5 most heavily invested industries with a surge of foreign direct investment in this sector in year 2008. This reflects investors confidence in Iskandar Malaysia business friendly and conducive operating environment towards building an Asian export future in Food & Agro Processing.

2. Financial Advisory & Consulting- Iskandar Malaysia is positioned to become regional financial services like Financial Shared Services Operation (FSSO) taking its advantages of location between two international financial hub of Kuala Lumpur and Singapore.

3. Petrochemical & Oleochemical – Aligned to government strategies to increase investment in upstream and downstream activities and focusing on high value-added Oil & Gas and palm oil industry activities.

4. Education – Education industry is main economic pillars offering excellent investment and job opportunities and in future provides professional individuals and skilled workers to support and sustain the growth of Iskandar Malaysia.

5. Healthcare – Iskandar Malaysia envisions being Asia’s healthcare and medical tourism destination attracting customer worldwide. It key positioning strategies are to transform into world-class healthcare and medical tourism city.

6. Logistics – Logistics services identified as one of the fastest growing industries over the next 20 years in Iskandar Malaysia.

7. Electrical & Electronics – In Iskandar Malaysia, Electrical & Electronics is the dorminant sector as it accounts for RM4.8 billion (USD 1.5 billion) of the total value-added and over a third (38%) of the employment of its manufacturing sector.

8. Tourism – In Iskandar Malaysia, the Tourism industry’s GDP contribution is expected to grow from 8 % in 2005 to 12 % in 2025 and job creation of 16,340 jobs. Legoland, Hello Kitty Family Theme Park and Puteri Harbour are the results of the tourism initiative plan, completed and are in operating.

9. Creative Industries – Iskandar Malaysia is well-positioned to benefit from Malaysia’s local, regional and global creative initiatives as set in the government’s development programme, the Tenth Malaysia Plan and the new Economic Transformation Programme (ETP).

The objective of Iskandar Malaysia development is to make Iskandar Malaysia a Safe & Secure place to Invest, Work, Live and Play. On top of it, initiatives taken to enhance liveability through a comprehensive, integrated and sustainable urban, transportation system. Another initiatives is taken to rejuvenate and revitalize Johor Bahru city as a Heritage & Cultural City which attracts vibrant activities and population.

Iskandar Malaysia Flagship

Iskandar Malaysia Flagship