India's top corporate hospitals can now set their sight on China, as it plans to launch a pilot project to permit wholly foreign-funded hospitals in seven cities to improve services and introduce more competition in the tightly regulated health sector.
Overseas investors will be allowed to establish foreign-funded hospitals from scratch or through mergers and acquisitions in the municipalities of Beijing, Tianjin and Shanghai, and Jiangsu, Fujian , Guangdong, and Hainan provinces, media reports quoted the Chinese Commerce Ministry's notice.
Vipul Prakash, director for manufacturing, agribusiness and services in Asia Pacific at International Finance Corp, (IFC) an investment arm under the World Bank, said "the opportunity is great" for foreign and private players, while the reform would allow some people to more easily access medical services.
"I think private health care is still a relatively small proportion of health care services in China, as the government remains a main provider," Prakash of IFC, which in the past few years has invested roughly USD 300 million in China's health care sector, the Hong Kong based South China Morning Post reported today.
"There's a lot of scope for more private participation in the health care sector," he said.
Many Indian health professionals representing India's top corporate hospitals who recently visited China expressed interest in extending their networks to China as and when the country opens health sector to private sector.
Analysts say inviting more private players into the sector would also ease bottlenecks in medical resources, which are causing rising conflict between doctors and patients.
That would represent a big step forward after German health care operator Artemed Group signed a framework agreement in July to launch the mainland's first wholly foreign-funded hospital in the Shanghai free-trade zone.
