Phnom Penh looks to medical tourism
TWO high-powered developers in Cambodia are partnering with a Bangkok-based health care consultancy to establish a high-quality medical centre in Phnom Penh in the hopes of establishing the capital as a medical tourism destination.
Singapore Medical Center (SGMC), a Cambodia-based company owned by Sear Rithy and his business partner Tan Teck Kee, has partnered with Bangkok-based health care management company AJT Holdings to launch a medical centre inside Phnom Penh’s luxury condominium complex The Bridge.
The Bridge, a $300 million mixed-use project started in mid-2014, is a joint development project between Worldbridge Land – run by Rithy and Tan – and Singapore-based Oxley Holdings.
The $8 million medical centre is set to occupy 1.3 square kilome- tres on a single floor of the complex, and is scheduled to open in the third quarter of this year.
Dr Felicia Tan, a Singaporean breast cancer specialist, said at a press conference in Phnom Penh on Friday that the facility would provide high-calibre medical care at lower rates than in Singapore, though the facility was still aimed at the small slice of the Cambodian population that could afford international medical care.
“Surgery in Singapore sees a lot of medical tourism coming from Cambodia itself, so we want to offer those people continuous health care, so they don’t have to continue treatment under a less than adequate health care system,” she said, referring to Cambodia’s existing medical options.
Anthony Jude Tan, founder and managing director of AJT Holdings, said the primary focus of the development was to draw medical tourists to Cambodia.
“We are looking for this to be a medical tourism hub,” he said. “We want to attract people from Laos, and to be here for the expats from Taiwan and China, too.”
The facility will be outfitted with six medical professionals from Singapore, the US andThailand and will employ approximately 30 Cambodian staff, he said, adding that if the initial site performed well, SGMC would consider setting up additional centres in Phnom Penh, Sihanoukville and Siem Reap over the course of the next two years.