With the increase in the number of foreigners coming to Korea for medical services following the Korean government’s approval of efforts to attract foreign patients to Korea last May, Gyeonggi Province has already seen positive results from its business presentation to attract foreign patients that was held in Kazakhstan on July 9, the first event of its kind to be sponsored by a provincial government in Korea.

On August 3, the Gyeonggi Provincial Government announced that a delegation from Kazakhstan, composed of doctors and medical staff from Kazakhstan’s major public medical facilities, would be visiting Gyeonggi Province on August 5.

The Province attracted this delegation to Korea to ensure that the business presentation is not a one-off event, but the first step in continuous medical exchanges and cooperation, as well as to provide Kazakhstani medical staff with an opportunity to experience the level of medical care available in Gyeonggi Province in person.

The delegation came to Korea not only to receive medical checkups, but also to experience and see for themselves the quality of medical facilities and medical services available in Gyeonggi Province. This represents an ideal opportunity to shift the medical tourism preferences of wealthy Kazakhstanis from Russia, Turkey, and Hungary to Korea, and specifically, to Gyeonggi Province.

On July 9, the Gyeonggi Provincial Government led a delegation of 24 medical professionals to Kazakhstan, and held a business presentation in Almaty to attract foreign patients to Korea, the first such initiative to be promoted by a provincial government.

During the presentation, which was joined by 120 guests, including the Director of the Ministry of Health who participated on behalf of Almaty Provincial Government, and the medical staff from the President’s Hospital, guests complimented and expressed considerable interest in to the high-level, professional medical services available for cardiovascular and spinal disease treatment as well as the obstetrics and gynecology-related services introduced by seven medical centers of Gyeonggi Province.

The Gyeonggi Provincial Government will continue to pursue medical exchanges and cooperation with Kazakhstan, while working to expand its medical markets by using Kazakhstan, a newly-emerging nation of wealth from which many people go abroad for medical services, as an advance base into the wider Central Asian region. As a part of its efforts to advance its service industry, the Korean government is actively pursuing measures to attract foreign patients by such means as improving the visa issuance process for foreign patients, holding medical tourism conferences, and allowing Korean hospitals to attract foreign patients. With these changes, the Gyeonggi Provincial Government expects that a growing number of patients will come to Korea to receive medical services, and that many of these will come to Gyeonggi Province due its geographical proximity.