Malaysian firm IHH Healthcare is building a US$70 million 250-bed hospital in Yangon through a Singaporean subsidiary, which will help efforts to train local Myanmar health professionals, the company said.
The new Parkway Yangon Hospital is IHH’s first in Myanmar, although the company plans to build more in the future, a Parkway Pantai spokesperson told The Myanmar Times.
The hospital is slated to open in 2020 and will support Myanmar’s national Health Vision 2030 policy, according to Tan See Leng, managing director and chief executive officer of IHH.
Among the aims of Health Vision 2030 are ensuring universal health service coverage, reducing the burden of communicable diseases, and raising medical and health research to international standards, according to the World Health Organization.
Parkway Yangon Hospital will prompt the training of healthcare professionals, and will help to share knowledge, clinical best practice and medical expertise, according to an IHH statement.
Many Myanmar citizens travel out of the country each year to receive healthcare, it added, and Parkway Yangon would provide an alternative.
For now, there are few international healthcare options in Yangon, and those who can afford to often travel instead to Bangkok, Singapore or other Asian centres of medial tourism.
The new building will also help create partnerships with training colleges, scholarship opportunities and overseas training fellowships for local professionals, the company said.
Parkway Pantai, IHH’s Singaporean subsidiary, is part of a joint venture consortium – Andaman Alliance Healthcare – that will develop and operate the hospital.
Doctors from Mount Elizabeth Hospital, a Singapore-based Parkway hospital, have already engaged with Myanmar specialists on initiatives like disease prevention, IHH said.
Parkway has a 52 percent stake through Parkway Healthcare Indo-China.
Myanmar-incorporated companies AMMK Medicare Company Limited and Global Star Company Limited have 21.5pc and 16pc respectively, while Singaporean-incorporated company Macondray holdings has the remaining 10.5pc.
The joint venture has a 50-year lease on a 4.3-acre site in downtown Yangon, with an option for two 10-year extensions.
Under a build-operate-transfer model, the joint venture has a concession to operate the hospital for the same length of time, after which it will transfer the hospital to the Myanmar private or public sector.
Source: Myanmar Times
