The nation has teamed up with a management and marketing consultancy group in Dubai to promote its medical services in the Middle East, the Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA) said.
Representatives from five hospitals in Taiwan and the Dubai-based Zabeel Group clinched the partnership by signing a memorandum of understanding yesterday in Taipei.
The five hospitals are Taichung Veterans General Hospital, Linkou Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, Cathay General Hospital, Cheng Hsin General Hospital and Min-Sheng General Hospital.
TAITRA also presented an “honorary consultant” certificate to the Zabeel Group at the ceremony.
“It marked a good beginning for our cooperation,” TAITRA executive vice president Walter Yeh (葉明水) said at the ceremony before witnessing the signing.
Yeh called the alliance “significantly important,” saying that the group would help introduce Taiwan’s high-quality medical services to people in the Middle East and North Africa.
The initiative also is to benefit from the introduction of nonstop flights between Dubai and Taipei in February, he said.
The partnership came about after TAITRA’s office in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) contacted Zabeel Group about a possible alliance to help attract investors and medical tourists from the wealthy Middle Eastern country, the trade body said.
Zabeel Group CEO Fuad Abdul Qader said at the ceremony that people in the UAE only know of Taiwan’s strength in manufacturing electronics, not its medical services.
However, after he personally experienced a medical checkup and operation in Taiwan, an experience he described as “excellent and unbelievable,” Abdul Qader said he wanted to promote what he has discovered here in his country.
In Dubai, many people travel abroad for medical services, often to the US, Europe, South Korea and Thailand, and now they will be “happy to come here for medical services,” he said.
In its role as Taiwan’s first medical service referral platform in the Middle East, Zabeel is to organize medical tours to Taipei, where clients can get “high-end” checkups, TAITRA said.
One group has already been organized and is in the nation, with another group expected to come next month, the trade body said.
Health official Lee Wui-chiang (李偉強) said at the signing ceremony that the alliance could generate many opportunities.
Healthcare and medical services are only a small part of the initiative, he said, suggesting that it could also involve foreign investment in Taiwan’s health industry, including in the pharmaceutical, device and equipment sectors.
Founded in 2002, the Zabeel Group has more than 50 companies in the UAE, providing services in the industrial, contracting, medical, commercial, financial, legal, recruitment, and management and marketing consultancy sectors.
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